Alice Tegnér

BIOGRAPHY
Alice Tegnér’s interest in music began with piano lessons from her father. At age thirteen, Tegnér attended Åhlinska Skolan, one of the first all-girl schools to provide a serious academic education. There, she took piano lessons with Hermann Berens, a professor at the Royal Swedish Academy of Music. The death of Tegnér’s father created a dire financial situation for her family. She decided to focus primarily on teaching as a substitute teacher to provide for her mother and siblings. Though this tragedy resulted in the end of her formal studies at the Academy, Tegnér continued to take piano and composition from Ludvig Norman.¹

Tegnér wrote eight collections of children’s songs that were widely circulated in Sweden.² Her inspiration stemmed from folk tunes as well as works by Felix Mendelssohn, Frédéric Chopin and Robert Schumann. Tegnér won multiple awards for her works, including the first prize in the Idun tonsättartävling, a Swedish composition competition. She was also elected as a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Music.³ 

In her later years, Tegnér launched the “Alice Tegnér Fund” that promoted the importance of music in schools.⁴ Many of her children’s songs are still popular in Sweden. Tegnér also wrote cantatas, choral pieces, solo vocal songs, three works for cello, and three works for violin.⁵