Irene Scharrer

Irene Scharrer was born in London, the daughter of Herbert Tobias Scharrer and Ida Henrietta Samuel Scharrer. She studied at the Royal Academy of Music with Tobias Matthay. Scharrer was a descendant of Moses Samuel, she being his great-granddaughter. The pianist Harriet Cohen was the great-great-granddaughter of Samuel, thus making the two pianists related. Irene’s mother, Ida, was a friend of Lizzie Hess, the mother of Myra Hess, and both daughters attended St Leonard’s School for Girls. The Scharrers and Hesses were not related and Irene and Myra were not cousins, as many people believed. They both studied at the Royal Academy of Music where they were quite inseparable. The composer Bax describing them as, ‘two very small and eternally giggling girls’. == Career ==