Sembrich, Marcella, 1858-1935, stage name of Praxede Marcelline Kochanska, Polish coloratura soprano. She studied piano and violin at the Lemberg Conservatory. Urged by Liszt to train her voice, she studied in Vienna and Italy and made her operatic debut in Athens in 1877. After singing in Dresden and in London, she made her American debut (1883) at the Metropolitan Opera, New York City, where she sang regularly from 1898 to 1909. She gave concerts until 1917; afterward she taught at the Curtis Institute in Philadelphia and at the Juilliard School of Music. She was considered the greatest coloratura of her day.