Eloísa D'Herbil

Eloisa D’Herbil (also Eloisa D’Herbil de Silva, 27 December 1847 – 22 June 1943) was a Spanish pianist and composer. A child prodigy on the piano, by age seven, she had played before the heads of state in England and Spain. As a child, the press dubbed her “Chopin in skirts” and from a young age, she began composing musical pieces. She immigrated to Argentina in 1868 and continued to write music, becoming one of the first women to write tangos. Early life Eloísa María Dolores Juana de la Santísima Trinidad D’Herbil was born on 27 December 1847 in Cádiz, Spain to the Raquel Angel de Cadia and Joseph D’Herbil. She began her training before her fifth birthday with the American pianist Louis Moreau Gottschalk and auditioned with the Hungarian composer and pianist Franz Liszt. She would remain a devotée of both and often played their music in concert. Liszt praised her ability to play Chopin, causing Viennese critics to dub the child prodigy as “Chopin in skirts”. By the age of six, she had played for Isabella II of Spain. The following year, she played for Queen Victoria and Prince Albert at Windsor Castle and in June of the same year, gave another concert in England in the Queen’s Con