Maria Theresia Ahlefeldt

Maria Theresia von Ahlefeldt (16 January 1755 – 20 December 1810) was a German born aristocrat and a Danish composer. She is known as the first female composer in Denmark. Biography Born in Regensburg, Maria Theresia was the eldest child of Alexander Ferdinand, 3rd Prince of Thurn and Taxis (1704–1773) and his third wife, Princess Maria Henriette Josepha of Fürstenberg-Stühlingen (1732–1772). She was a younger half-sister of Karl Anselm, 4th Prince of Thurn and Taxis and niece of Maria Augusta of Thurn and Taxis. She grew in a cultural environment at the princely court in Regensburg, which was a centre of French, German and Italian opera, theatre, ballet, pantomimes and concerts. She was instructed in clavecin playing with her sisters and displayed an early talent of music composition. Maria Theresia was engaged to Prince Joseph of Fürstenberg (1758–1796) from 1772 until her affair with an elderly German Prince Philipp of Hohenlohe-Ingelfingen (1702–1781) in 1776. Her family, however, refused permission for her to marry Philipp. In 1780 in Prague, she married the Danish noble Count Ferdinand of Ahlefeldt-Langeland (1747–1815), against the will of her family. This marriage against t