Nanna Liebmann (née Lehmann) (1849–1935) was born in Copenhagen into a wealthy and highly cultured bourgeois family. Her father was an ophthalmologist and amateur violinist, and her uncle was the well-known liberal politician Orla Lehmann. During Liebmann’s childhood and youth, her father hosted numerous string quartet evenings at their home, often participating himself. In a newspaper article in Dannebrog, the family’s home on Rosenvænget was even described as “a leading influence in Copenhagen's musical circles”.
At the age of 18 Liebmann was enrolled in the Niels W. Gade’s new music conservatory, and she received high praise during her time there. In 1872, she became engaged to her fellow student Axel Liebmann, a promising composer. The two wrote small love songs for each other, and two of the songs Nanna composed for Axel, Der Rattenfänger and Der Goldschmiedgesell, were included in her very first publication, Syv Sange til tydske Texter from 1885.
The couple married in 1874 and had a son the following year, but Axel Liebmann passed away in 1876 from an abdominal illness, only a year and a half after their wedding. From that point on, Nanna Liebmann had to provide for herself and her son. She found work as a singing teacher at Nathalie Zahle’s School and took over Axel’s former role as a music critic at the newspaper Fædrelandet. She more or less set aside composing for the next 25 years, and it was only after 1900 that she resumed composing and publishing music.
Between 1903 and 1904, she published the song collections Minnelieder and Fem Sange, both of which generally received positive reviews. In 1911, she released the piano work Thème passionné et variations through the publisher Wilhelm Hansen.
In 1895, Nanna Liebmann played a key role in organizing the Women’s Exhibition in Copenhagen, where she served as chair of the music committee. She was highly competent in this regard, as her family’s cultural connections, along with her own cultivated network, gave her strong ties within the musical community, enabling her to recruit talent from these circles. However, although the Women’s Exhibition sought to highlight the talents of Nordic women, Nanna Liebmann was not an advocate for women’s rights; on the contrary, she was deeply critical of the entire women’s liberation movement.
Following a period of illness in 1914, Liebmann is believed to have stopped composing and spent her remaining years supporting herself by teaching and taking in lodgers.
