Mon Schjelderup

Maria Gustava Schjelderup was born in Fredrikshald (now Halden), Østfold, of parents Captain Christian Bernhard Koren Schjelderup (1819–1889) and Anne Sofie Preus Berg (1831–1898). She was also the cousin of composer Gerhard Schjelderup (1859–1933). Schjelderup grew up in a musical home, and wrote her first composition at age 14. She studied piano with Agathe Backer Grøndahl. Later she continued her studies in piano and theory at the Royal Music Institute of Berlin, and in composition at the Conservatory in Paris with Jules Massenet. In 1894 she made her public debut as pianist and composer in Christiania. She continued her study with Massenet and began working as a composer and a piano teacher at the Music Conservatory in Christiania. Mon Schjelderup never married and retired at the age of 34 due to disabling mental illness. She died in 1934 in Asker, Akershus.