Clara Schumann at the age of nine, Clara Wieck performed at the Leipzig home of Dr. Ernst Carus, director of the mental hospital at Colditz Castle. There, she met another gifted young pianist who had been invited to the musical evening, Robert Schumann, who was nine years older. Schumann admired Clara's playing so much that he asked permission from his mother to stop studying law, which had never interested him much, and take music lessons with Clara's father. While taking lessons, he rented a room in the Wieck household, staying about a year. He would sometimes dress up as a ghost and
Clara Fisher States. She made her debut on the American stage at the Park Theatre to rave reviews. She was the "favorite Star" of every city where she performed. She "electrified" audiences with her portrayals of Ophelia, Viola, Cherubino and Susanna. She sparked a "Clara Fisher craze". Poems were written about her and her name was given to babies, hotels, stagecoaches, race horses, steamboats and almost anything else Americans could think of. Her plays were attended by the social and political elite of the time. In December 1834, Fisher married James Gaspard Maeder (1809–1876), a composer and vocal coach who wrote an