October 2018

Edvard Grieg ( June 15, 1843 - September 4, 1907) was a Norwegian composer and pianist. Raised in a musical family, his mother was his first piano teacher at age six. Grieg later on enrolled in the Leipzig Conservatory where he focused predominantly on the piano.  Continue reading →

Cécile Louise Stéphanie Chaminade (Aug. 8, 1857 - April 13, 1944) was a French pianist and composer. Her mother was her first piano teacher, and she also took violin and composition; sadly her father disapproved. Continue reading →

Vasily Prisovsky (1861 - 1917) was a Ukranian composer and bandmaster, of whom we know very little about. He wrote several popular piano works in the early 1900s, and conducted the brass band of the 132 Bender Infantry Regiment. Continue reading →

Edward Alexander MacDowell (Dec. 18, 1860 - Jan. 23. 1908) was an American pianist and composer. Born in New York City, he took piano lessons from various people as a child, and when he was 17, his mother decided to take him to Paris, where he attended the Paris Conservatory. He studied there for two years, before continuing in Germany a Dr. Hoch's Conservatory in Frankfurt. While he was there, Franz Liszt and Clara Schumann visited the university, and MacDowell played Robert Schumann's Quintet, and later on played his own works for Liszt, who would go on to recommend him for performance and introduce him to major music publishers.  MacDowell would go on to teach at Columbia University, and was their first professor of music. Continue reading →