Madame Marie Reymond (1858-1926), music teacher, Burslem
A BRIEF BIOGRAPHY
Acknowledgments
Many thanks go to Birte Havnø, a Danish genealogist who is related to Madame Marie Reymond, and has spent many hours researching Danish and other records to provide us with the accurate information about Madame Reymond and her family in the early years. This brief biography is being updated (April 2021) with her information, freely given.
Notes
Danish censuses are often not very precise about age. However, the church books are precise and good to get accurate dates. But when it comes to spelling names, they can change from birth to wedding to funeral. It can get confusing.
Karen Marie Elisabeth Holst
Karen, who later changed her name to Madame Marie Reymond, was the daughter of Frederik Idon Holst and Juliane Marie (nee Petersen). She was born in Copenhagen, Denmark, on 20 March 1858. Link here to her birth record.
Karen was baptised in Helligåndskirken (The Church of the Holy Spirit), Copenhagen, on 30 May 1858.
 |
| Karen Maria Elisabeth Holst aged about 9 |
Karen's mother, Juliane Marie (nee Peterson), was born 02 December 1820 in Kalundborg, Denmark, and baptised 05 January 1821.
Karen's father, Frederik Idon Holst, was born in Copenhagen on 06 May 1822, and baptised in Saint Petri German Church in Copenhagen on 06 June 1823. His parents were not German.
Karen’s mother had been married before and was a widow when she married Frederik. It is rather unusual, but Frederik was the nephew of her first husband, Anders Idon Holst.
Karen's first husband, Anders, was 36 years older than Juliane Marie. He was born in 1784, and was a widower. Anders and Juliane Marie had 6 children.
They were:
Vilhelmine Christiane Holst, born 30 January 1846
Augustine Camille Holst, born 13 February 1848
Julie Adelaida Holst, born 26 February 1850
Jutta Amalie Frederikke Holst, born 24 October 1852
Anders Idon Holst, born 22 August 1854, died from pnemonia 29 July 1856
Johannes Julius Frederik, born 15 March 1856, died from pertussis (whooping cough) 15 April 1857
Anders Idon Holst (Karen's first husband) was a Master Cooper. He died on 10 April 1857, aged 73.
Juliane Marie (Karen's mother) married Frederik Idon Holst on 16 October 1857. They had two children, Karen and her little sister Yelva Albina Gunhilde Holst who was was born 12 September 1859, but she died aged just 10 on 09 March 1869.
Frederik Idon Holst (Karen's father) was a retailer and merchant and advertised in the newspapers.
Karen Marie Holst studied music under various noted teachers, including Niels Cade.
She married Jean Reymond, a French pianoforte maker, living in Burslem, in 1887 and changed her name to Madame Marie Reymond.
She set up a music school at Beethoven House, Moorland Road, in 1897 where she taught singing, pianoforte and violin. She sent one of her pupils, John Cope, to Munich to study the organ under Rheinburger.
She founded the Potteries Orchestra in 1903-1904 and served as its business manager, with John Cope acting as its conductor.
Madam Marie Reymond died on 27 December 1926 and was buried in Hanley cemetery. She is mentioned in Arnold Bennett‘s novel These Twain as 'twenty three years, tall, slim and blonder than any girl ever seen in the five Towns'.
 |
| North Staffordshire Symphony Orchestra - Madame Reymond through the years |
Marie and Beethoven House
Beethoven House in Moorland Road, Burslem, Stoke-on-Trent, was the location of a music school run by Madame Marie Reymond, the mentor of John Cope who founded the North Staffordshire Symphony Orchestra (originally called the The Potteries Orchestral Society). |
| Alexandra Buildings, 76 Moorland Road, Burslem, Stoke-on-Trent Madame Reymond's music school at Beethoven House |
A BLOG FROM FRED HUGHES, local historian
"In 1887 the Holst family of Denmark came to reside at number 218 Waterloo Road Cobridge. Fredrik Idon Holst and his wife Juliane Marie were accompanied by their 34 year old daughter, music teacher Karen Maria Elisabeth. But of all the places in the world why had this immigrant family chosen Burslem to settle?
“Well that really is a big mystery,” says Kathy Niblett, Historian of the NSSO. “We know the father was a manufacturer of wooden barrels, and we know they must have been quite well off to have bought a house in the well-to-do Cobridge, which was the posh retreat of prosperous Burslem families. But why they decided on Burslem will forever remain a mystery in the story of this truly magical woman.” more here>>
Wagner's Magnificent Bust
Note the bust displayed in the window of Beethoven House. Its made in Parian Pottery tinted in flesh colour, green and red with touches of gold and made by Robinson and Leadbetter, of Wolfe Street, Stoke. On the underside it is impressed with the letters R&L in a circle and dates to around 1885. It is now stored in The Potteries Museum, Hanley, Stoke-on-Trent and was presented to the museum in March 1963 by the executors of the late John Cope through Mr E McCombe.Beethoven House Advertising Flyer
Student Certificates
These two student music certificates were handed to Annette Cartlidge when she was researching the ghost signs on Beethoven House in Moorland Road, Burslem. They were found by Adam Jones in the the property. They are in a pretty dreadful state but hi-resolution images have been made of the certificates which will forwarded for safe keeping to the Stoke-on-Trent City Archive which holds many documents relating to the NSSO. |
North Staffordshire Symphony Orchestra - Music Certificates found in Beethoven House 2015
|
Madame Reymond dies 1926
 |
| Newspaper cutting Courtesy: Staffordshire Advertiser |