Marie Fillunger

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Marie Fillunger (born 27 January 1850 in Vienna; died 23 December 1930 in Interlaken) was an Austrian singer. She was a lover of Eugenie Schumann, the daughter of Clara and Robert Schumann. Studying at the Vienna Conservatory from 1869-73 and, on the recommendation of Johannes Brahms, at the Hochschule in Berlin, she first met Eugenie Schumann in 1874. Using the Schumann house as a base for a number of years, (first in Berlin and then in Frankfurt from 1878) she left for England in January 1889 after a dispute with Marie Schumann. Here she was to establish herself as a highly regarded singer of lieder, particularly in the repertoire of Schubert and Brahms. She toured both Australia in 1891 and South Afica in 1895 with Sir Charles Halle eventually joining the teaching staff of the Royal College of Music in Manchester from which she resigned before the outbreak of the First World War. She spent the last years of her life with Eugenie in Matten near Interlaken in Switzerland. Fillunger is buried alongside Eugenie and Marie Schumann in the nearby village of Gsteig. An obituary can be read in The Musical Times, Vol. 72, No. 1056 (Feb. 1, 1931), pp. 175-176. Her long relationship with Eugenie Schumann is discussed in a number of articles by German music historian Eva Rieger.