Jane Mary Guest

Jane Mary Guest, also known as Jenny Guest and later as Jane Mary Miles, (c. 1762 – 20 March 1846) was an English composer and pianist. A pupil of Johann Christian Bach, and initially composing in the galante style, she composed keyboard sonatas, other keyboard works and vocal works with keyboard accompaniment. She was piano teacher to Princess Amelia and Princess Charlotte of Wales.

Biography

Guest was born c. 1762, probably in Bath, Somerset, where her father Thomas Guest was a tailor. At Bath her teachers included Thomas Orpin and Thomas Linley, and she was giving performances there by the age of 6. From 1776 she was a pupil of J. C. Bach in London, and she was also taught by Antonio Sacchini. She performed in London from 1779, giving subscription concerts there in 1783/84. She was known for her expressive style of playing. Around this time she published her Six Sonatas, Op. 1, which gained extensive subscriptions, including from royalty, and which were also published in Paris in 1784 and Berlin in 1785.