Nicoline Zedeler (March 8, 1889 – March 26, 1961), later Nicoline Zedeler-Mix, was a Swedish-born American violinist who toured as a soloist with John Philip Sousa.
Early life Nicoline Florentine Zedeler was born in Stockholm in 1889 (some sources give 1892), and immigrated with her family to the American midwest when she was five years old. She played violin in performance from childhood."A Young Violiniste" The Dispatch (December 11, 1897): 4. via Newspapers.com Her father, Franz Zedeler, taught violin at Bethany College in Kansas, and at Augustana College in Rock Island, Illinois. Her older brother Nicolai Franz Zedeler (1885–1966) was also a musician. Nicoline Zedeler studied music in Chicago, and with Theodore Spiering in Berlin.Ernst Wilhelm Olson, The Swedish Element in Illinois (Swedish-American Biographical Association 1917): 256.Mary Lindsay Oliver, "Student Two Years Ago is Artist Now" The Dispatch (February 17, 1912): 13. via Newspapers.com In their youth, she and her brother played with the Augustana Conservatory Orchestra, under their father's baton.Catalogue of Augustana College and Theological Seminary (1902): 110.
Career Zedeler toured the world as a featured soloist with the Sousa band,"High Honors for Chicago Girl" Chicago Tribune (June 19, 1910): 9. via Newspapers.com including concerts in Australia, and many in Europe and North America.D.W. Coulter, "Nicoline Zedeler" The Violinist (December 1912): 41. The only other woman performer on the 1910–1911 Sousa world tour was the soprano soloist, Virginia Root.Paul E. Bierley, The Incredible Band of John Philip Sousa (University of Illinois Press 2006): 10, 28. "There is a certain charm and intelligence in her playing which is very fascinating. I predict a great success for her," commented on Boston critic in 1912.Harvard, "Boston" The Violinist (January 1913): 44.
After she married, Nicoline Zedeler-Mix continued as a concert performer, and taught violin at the American Institute of Applied Music in New York City, on the same faculty with Theodore Spiering."Pupils of Nicoline Zedeler Mix Heard in Recital" Musical Observer (August 1922): 72. She also taught at the Chicago Musical College and Chatham Square School of Music.Paul E. Bierley, The Incredible Band of John Philip Sousa (University of Illinois Press 2006): 77. In 1916, she was a featured soloist with Arthur Pryor's band at the Western Pennsylvania Exposition in Pittsburgh."New Exhibits Please Crowds at Exposition" Pittsburgh Press (September 17, 1916): 13. via Newspapers.com With her husband, she founded the Thirteenth Sound Ensemble in 1927, and promoted the work of Mexican composer Julián Carrillo."Nicoline Z. Mix, 72, Was Violin Teacher" New York Times (March 27, 1961): 31.
Among her students was Oscar Ravina, violinist with the New York Philharmonic."Philharmonic Violinist to be Hills Symphony Concertmaster" Echoes-Sentinel (June 16, 1977): 44. via Newspapers.com
Personal life Nicoline Zedeler married fellow Sousa tuba musician Emil Mix in 1912.International Who's who in Music and Musical Gazetteer (Current Literature Publishing Company 1918): 712. They had four children: Theodore, Thomas, Virginia, and Nicoline. She was widowed in 1954,"Emil Mix" New York Times (December 20, 1954): 29. and died in 1961, in New York City, aged 72 years.
References
External links An autographed photo of Nicoline Zedeler from 1911, taken in Johannesburg, in the collection of the State Library of New South Wales.