of the modern school. She has a powerful and brilliant tone, with sweet
tenderness and sympathy, which appeal to the soul of the listener, and
she confines her repertoire to the highest class of musical
compositions. She has recently succeeded Miss Emily Shinner as first
violin in the quartet which that talented lady established in England.

The most recent star of Europe is Madame Saenger-Sethe, whose
appearances are invariably followed by eulogies from the critics. In
Berlin, when she appeared at the Singakademie, in November, 1898, where
she was assisted by the Philharmonic Orchestra, one critic declared that
no violin playing had been heard to compare with it during that season,
with the exception of Burmester's performance of the Beethoven concerto.
"Such wealth and sensuous beauty of tone, such certainty of technique,
such mental grasp of the work, and at the same time such all-conquering
temperament have not been heard in Berlin at the hands of a female
violinist during several years." After many recalls, she gave, as an
encore, a rousing performance of a Bach sarabande.

Mlle. Irma Sethe was born on April 28, 1876, at Brussels, and such was
her early aptitude for music that at the age of five she was placed
under a violinist of repute, named Jokisch, who in three months from the
start taught her to play a Mozart sonata. Five years of hard study
enabled her to appear at a concert at Marchiennes, when she played a
concerto by De Beriot and the rondo capriccioso by Saint-Saens. The
following year she played at Aix-la-Chapelle, and made such an
impression that several offers of concert engagements were made, but
were declined by her mother on the score of the child's health, and for
three years after this she never appeared at a concert.

One summer, during the holidays, she met August Wilhelmj, who was
charmed with her talent, and devoted his mornings for two months to
giving her lessons daily. At the end of that time he emphasised his
appreciation by making her a present of a valuable violin. She still
continued her regular studies with Jokisch, until, acting on the advice
of her friends, she obtained a hearing from Ysaye, and played for him
Bach's prelude and fugue in G minor.

Ysaye at once recognised her immense ability, and advised her to enter
the conservatoire at Brussels, which she did, with the result that in
eight months she carried off the first prize, being then only fifteen
years of age. She contin