iss Shinner at once presented
herself as a second candidate, and the result was that both ladies were
accepted as probationers. In six months Miss Shinner was allowed to
become a pupil of Joachim, and thus gained the distinction of being the
first girl violinist to study under the great professor.

Again in 1884 Miss Shinner, having acquired a great reputation in
musical circles in England, was called upon at very short notice to take
Madame Neruda's place as leader to the "Pop" Quartet, on which occasion
she acquitted herself so well that an encore of the second movement of
the quartet was demanded. Since that time she has been always before the
public, and has taken special interest in chamber music and quartet
playing, the Shinner Quartet of ladies having acquired a national
reputation.

Her marriage to Capt. A. F. Liddell took place in 1889.

Marie Soldat was born at Gratz in 1863 or 1864, and was the daughter of
a musician, who was pianist, organist, and choirmaster, and who gave
her instruction from her fifth year on the piano. Two years later she
began to learn the organ, and was soon able to act as substitute for her
father when occasion required her services. Until her twelfth year she
studied music vigorously, taking violin lessons with Pleiner at the
Steier Musical Union at Gratz, and composition with Thierot, the
Kapellmeister, at the same time keeping on with the pianoforte.

She played the phantasie-caprice by Vieuxtemps in a concert at the
Musical Union when she was ten years of age, and at thirteen she went on
a tour and played Bruch's G minor concerto.

Soon after this she had the misfortune to lose her father, and a little
later her violin teacher, Pleiner, also died, so that her progress
received a check. Joachim, however, visited Gratz to play at a concert,
and the young girl went to him and consulted him as to her future
course. As a result of the interview she began to take lessons of August
Pott, a good violinist at Gratz, and the following year (1879) she again
went on a concert tour, visiting several cities in Austria.

During this tour, she made the acquaintance of Johannes Brahms, who took
a great deal of interest in her, advised her to devote all her energies
to the violin, and succeeded in arranging for another interview with
Joachim, the result of which was that she was enabled to enter the
Berlin High School for Music. Here she pursued her studies until 1882,
after which she still co