Reiff was born in
Bamberg, Germany. She studied at the Music Academy in Munich for two years before moving to Weimar in 1883 to study with
Franz Liszt for a year. She also studied with
Ludwig Thuille in Munich and with Max Conrad and
Friedrich Hegar in Zurich. As a student, Reiff presented concerts for charity with the violinist
Adolf Busch, who was a friend of her family. Reiff toured as a concert pianist from 1885 to 1888, when she married professor Eugen Bamberger. In 1891, she married the manufacturer and cellist Hermann Reiff. The Reiffs hosted weekly tea recitals at their home, where young musicians performed and networked. They also managed a concert series at the Lilienberg retirement home in Affoltern am Albis, sometimes performing themselves. A 1951
Zürcher Woche magazine profile of Reiff focused on her patronage of the arts and described her as a "friend of the elderly" and "helper of the young." Her compositions were published by Hug & Co. Musikverlag and Otto Halbreiter,
Opera • Das Verkaufte Lied •
Fruhling der Seele, opus 13 • “Siehst du Im See, opus 12” • “Weil ich jedn Abend Einsam Bin” (text by Carl Friedrich Weigand) == References ==