Ann Mounsey

Ann Mounsey, born in London in 1811 and who died in the same city in 1891, was an English composer, organist and music teacher of the Victorian era. Her name is chiefly associated with the London musical scene, where she worked as a teacher and organist, and with her connection to Mendelssohn.

From childhood she was trained by Johann Bernhard Logier, and in 1820 Spohr took an interest in her, to the point of publishing in his autobiography a harmonisation of a melody by her. She later studied with Samuel Wesley and Thomas Attwood. In 1828 she was appointed organist at Clapton and, four years later, she joined the Philharmonic Society as an associate member. In 1843 she began a series of classical concerts at Crosby Hall, which ran for six seasons. On 8 January 1845 she premiered Mendelssohn's anthem Hear my prayer, written for those evenings.

In 1853 she married William Bartholomew, translator and adapter of libretti for Mendelssohn, and that same year she composed the oratorio The Nativity, performed at St Martin's Hall under the direction of John Hullah. Her output includes the sacred cantata Supplication and Thanksgiving, more than a hundred songs, forty partsongs, hymns, and works for piano and organ.

Her sister Elizabeth Mounsey, born in London in 1819, was also an organist and composer, and the two together published collections of sacred music. Ann Mounsey occupies a modest but well-documented place in the London musical life of the nineteenth century.