Biography

Elisabeth von Trapp is the granddaughter of Agathe Whitehead and Georg Ritter von Trapp

Georg Ritter von Trapp

Korvettenkapitän Georg Ludwig Ritter von Trapp , known as Baron von Trapp, was an Austro-Hungarian Navy officer. His exploits at sea during World War I earned him numerous decorations, including the prestigious Military Order of Maria Theresa...

 and the daughter of Werner von Trapp

Werner von Trapp

Werner Ritter von Trapp was the second-oldest son of Georg Ritter von Trapp and Agathe Whitehead. He was a member of the Trapp Family Singers, whose lives were the inspiration for the play and movie The Sound of Music...

. The Trapp Family Singers, which Maria and Georg founded in Austria and brought with them to the United States when they escaped Austria in 1938, included Elisabeth's father, Werner von Trapp

Werner von Trapp

Werner Ritter von Trapp was the second-oldest son of Georg Ritter von Trapp and Agathe Whitehead. He was a member of the Trapp Family Singers, whose lives were the inspiration for the play and movie The Sound of Music...

.

The Family Singers disbanded in 1957, but Elisabeth von Trapp grew up with her father's guitar playing and singing, and around the musical family's home, the Trapp Family Lodge in Stowe

Stowe, Vermont

Stowe is a town in Lamoille County, Vermont, United States. The population was 4,339 at the 2000 census. Tourism is a significant industry.-Geography:...

, Vermont

Vermont

Vermont is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. The state ranks 43rd in land area, , and 45th in total area. Its population according to the 2010 census, 630,337, is the second smallest in the country, larger only than Wyoming. It is the only New England...

. She began taking piano lessons when she was eight and by the age of sixteen she was playing guitar and traveling the back roads of New England performing with her siblings at weddings, gospel meetings and town halls.

Her musical style takes from many genres, including modern and Gregorian Chant

Gregorian chant

Gregorian chant is the central tradition of Western plainchant, a form of monophonic liturgical music within Western Christianity that accompanied the celebration of Mass and other ritual services...

, Hymns, Psalms and Works by Hildegard von Bingen. She appeared together with Erich Kory. She performed in the U.S.

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

, Russia

Russia

Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...

 and Austria

Austria

Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...

, including European cathedrals and Washington D.C.’s Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts

External links