Ingeborg Bronsart von Schellendorf

Ingeborg Bronsart von Schellendorf (born Ingeborg Maria Wilhelmina Starck, 24 August 1840 in Saint Petersburg, died 17 June 1913 in Munich) was a Finnish-German composer.

Ingeborg Starck was the daughter of Finnish parents Margareta Åkerman and Otto Starck (originally Tarkiain[en]) who were living in Saint Petersburg, Russia, where her father, a court saddle-maker, was involved in commerce. Her native language was Finland’s Swedish. Having shown musical gifts from a young age, she studied piano with Nicolas von Martinoff and Adolf Henselt, as well as composition with Constantin Decker. She completed her studies in Weimar with Franz Liszt. During a stay in Paris in 1861 her friends included composers such as Auber, Berlioz, Rossini and Wagner (who commented in his autobiography on her good looks). In September of the same year, she married fellow pianist-composer Hans Bronsart von Schellendorff, a member of Liszt's circle whom she had met in Weimar.

Ingeborg Bronsart von Schellendorf, as she was now known, toured Europe as a concert pianist until 1867, when she was expected to cease work due to her husband's appointment as general manager of the Royal Theatre in Hanover. She remained musically active, however, as a composer of opera, chamber and instrumental music and a large number of songs. Earlier, she had composed a piano concerto (1863), now lost. During her lifetime her operas were successfully produced in many theatres in Germany. Pieces composed by her which were popular at the time included her Kaiser Wilhelm March (1871), the Singspiel Jery und Bätely (1873) and the opera Hiarne (1891).