Elfrida Andrée

Elfrida Andrée studied at Royal College of Music in Stockholm. Training under Ludvig Norman, Gustaf Mankell and Johan van Boom is recorded. Sara Wennerberg-Reuter is recorded as having studied under Elfrida Andrée. the recorded working language is Swedish. Subjects and genres recorded for the work are opera and organ repertoire. Residence is recorded at house of Cramér. Distinctions recorded are Idunprize.

Andrée was born on 19 February 1841 in Visby to the doctor Andreas Andrée and Lovisa Lyth, both of whom were actively involved in musical pursuits. Luckily for Elfrida, Andreas believed in education for all his children, not just his sons. Both she and her older sister, Fredrika, received excellent instruction, especially in music. When she was fourteen, she enrolled at the Conservatory in Stockholm, where she studied both organ and composition. She was the pupil of Ludvig Norman and Niels Wilhelm Gade, and was the first woman to pass organ examinations in Sweden.

In Sweden at the time Andrée was ready to begin her career, unmarried women over the age of twenty-five were barred from holding permanent positions as church organists. Both Elfrida and her father repeatedly lobbied the Swedish parliament to change the law, and eventually succeeded in 1861. An activist in the Swedish women's movement, she was one of the first female organists to be officially appointed in Scandinavia.

Andrée began work in Stockholm in 1861 and became the organist at Gothenburg Cathedral in 1867, where she remained the organist until her death. In 1897 she was named leader of the Gothenburg Workers Institute Concerts, establishing her reputation as the first Swedish woman to conduct a symphony orchestra. Reportedly, she fainted upon hearing the news of her appointment. For her services, she was elected to the Royal Swedish Academy of Music. She died in Gothenburg. During her career, she won the Litteris et Artibus award in 1895, as well as the Idun "Women's Academy" Fellowship in 1908.