Born on June 13, 1842, in Nantes, France, Camilla Urso was the daughter of an Italian flutist and a Portuguese singer. At six, despite general skepticism over her ability to master a ╥masculine╙ instrument, she began taking violin lessons. The success of her first public recital a year later convinced her parents, who took her to Paris. Persistence finally won her admission to the Paris Conservatoire, where she studied under Lambert Massart. A provincial concert tour helped finance her studies, and at ten she placed first in her final examinations.
She arrived in New York City in September 1852 to begin an American concert tour. The tour arrangements collapsed, but she gave concerts in New York City, Boston, and Philadelphia. With the Germania Society she made tours of New England and, in 1853, of other northern and western states. She subsequently toured with the company of Henrietta Sontag as far as New Orleans, and she continued to appear in New York until 1855, when she retired with her parents to Nashville, Tennessee.
Over the next seven years Urso practiced diligently. She emerged from retirement in 1863 to play with the Philharmonic Society in Boston, and later in the year she appeared with the New York Philharmonic. She toured New England with Patrick S. Gilmore╒s band in 1863╨1864. In 1864╨1865 she had her own concert company, with which she made a Canadian tour. She returned to Paris in June 1865 and scored a great success in a Pasdeloup Concert. For the next 30 years she toured regularly in the United States and abroad. In addition to regular European tours she traveled to Australia in 1879 and 1894 and to South Africa in 1895. She was acknowledged one of the preeminent violinists of the day, and her repertoire included both classic and contemporary works. She retired from performing in 1895 and settled in New York City. For some years she taught privately and at the National Conservatory of Music. She died in virtual obscurity in New York City on January 20, 1902.
