June 14, 1923
28
A Letter from Mrs. Edward MacDowell
Mrs. Edward MacDowell, with a strong constitution fortified by^ the indomitable will which is hers, has at last sufficiently recovered from her severe automobile accident to go back to Peterborough to superintend another season at the MacDowell Colony. Here is a paragraph from a letter which she recently sent to the Musical Courier :
“I laughed at myself this morning. I remember how pathetic I was last winter over the fact that I knew I would never be well enough to work in my garden again! I wish you could have seen me grubbing out weeds this morning.”
Contributions now amount to something over $2,500, but the fund is by no means closed or the Colony’s needs met. The Musical Courier will continue to act as collector. Contributions of any size are welcome. They should be sent to the MacDowell Colony Fund, care Musical Courier, 437 Fifth Avenue, New York City, arid will be acknowledged in these columns. Here is a complete list of the subscribers :
MacDowell Club of Derry, N. H.
MacDowell Club of Janesville, Wis.
MacDowell Club of New Philadelphia, Ohio.
MacDowell Club of Portland, Maine
MacDowell Club of Roselle, N. J.
MacDowell Music Club, Washington, D. C.
C. A. W. Makin George M. Mclves Music Study Club, Newark, N. J.
New Hampshire Daughters George Foster Peabody Philharmonic Music Club, Waupun, Wis.
Poets’ Benefit Fund, Charleston, S. C.
Grace H. Poole Mary S. Pratt Joseph Regneas Dixie Selden
Washington Heights Musical Club
Anonymous
Austin Chapter, MacDowell Ass’n, Chicago
Cheshire Music Club, Cheshire, Conn.
Elizabeth F. Babbott Emilie F. Bauer Mrs. H. H. A. Beach Cincinnati MacDowell Society Caroline B. Dow William P. Eno Mrs. Farr H. G. French Julius Goldman John B. Grimball Frances Grover Harmony Club, Derry, N. H. Mrs. F. R. Hazard Gertrude C. Herrick Mrs. Frederick Heizer Mrs. James Herreshoff, Jr. Blanche F. Hooker Charles F. Horner Wm. Sargent Ladd Mr. and Mrs. C. G. Mac-well
MacDowell Society of Chicago
of annual scholarship and prizes was done through Nanette Hopkins, Ph.D., and a special feature of the May 23 program was the playing of Aileen Morgan-Stephens of both violin and piano pieces. The Atlanta Constitution of May 27 devotes conspicuous space in pictures and notice of these “Blue Ribbon” violinists. This contained a list of the prize winners, winners of scholarships, first honors for piano and violin, etc.
National Opera Club and Von Klenner Notes
The Baroness Katharine Evans Von Klenner will spend two weeks in Maine, the guest of vice-president Mrs. Clarence R. Weeks of the National Opera Club, before opening her school of vocal music at beautiful Point Chautauqua on July 1. Mary T. Nixon, Mr. and Mrs. Thos. Nixon, Mrs. A. J. Orr, and several other board members of the club will be included in the house party, also a number of well known Boston musicians.
Many pupils desiring the superior advantages obtained from the exclusive attention which Mme. Von Klenner gives her pupils at her summer school have already registered. Among them are Edna Banker (Rochester), Helene S. Wade (Florida), Annie Clayton Jones, Elsie Peck, Lee Hess Barnes, Fred R. Macey, Marie Byrnes, Marion Fritz, Elizabeth Keper and other teachers and singers who wish to acquire further knowledge of the Von Klenner-Garcia method. Teachers especially value the benefits to be obtained from the intensive instruction which this noted teacher so well knows how to impart. A season of summer study with her means a veritable re-creation and inspiration. Teaching teachers is in itself a specialty, and Mme. Von Klenner has numerous teachers filling important positions in colleges, in almost every State of the Union, who illustrate the value of the instruction received from this teacher, such as Olivia Thomas (Women’s College of Florida), Lee Hess Barnes (Pennsylvania College of Music), Pauline Gregorius (Judson College, Marion, Ala.), Louise Siddall (Sumter, S. C.), Klare Marie See (Springfield, 111.), Elizabeth Nelson (Jamestown, N. Y.), Anna M. Ilgen (Brooklyn), etc.
The New Stadium Bandstand
The Stadium Concerts will have a new bandstand this year considerably larger than the old one.
It will be fifty-six feet wide and thirty-six feet deep, with five tiers for the one hundred and six players. It is, in the first place, to be a handsome building—the architects claim by far the finest open air orchestra stand in the country—but its main value will be its acoustic properties. With it in position, it is believed, the problem of hearing the Stadium Concerts perfectly will have been definitely solved, to the faintest whisper of the violins.
It is because of this greatest need that the underwriters of and the subscribers to the Stadium Concerts are this year making this additional expense of $15,000 possible. The stand’s great feature will be a sounding board which is thirty-six feet in front to twenty-four feet in the back. There is an air space between the roof and the sounding board, a most important factor. F. Burrell Hoffman, Jr., and Murray Hoffman are the architects.
Carreras Engaged for P. T. A. in St. Louis
The Piano Teachers’ Association of St. Louis, Mo., has engaged Maria Carreras for the opening session of the association in October. This artist, unknown to the American public a year ago, has had no difficulty in commanding the serious attention of critics and public alike, as her three New York recitals last season within the period of two months amply show. November 24 has been set as the date for Mme. Carreras’ first New York recital next season.
A Second Carson-Church Radio Recital
Inez Church, soprano, and Leon Carson, tenor, gave a special program at their second radio recital on May 27, from the new WJZ, Aeolian Hall studios, with Emilio A Roxas at the piano.
MUSICAL COURIER
THE AMERICAN ACADEMY OF TEACHERS OF SINGING
the realization that future pupils come from the source of the public school.
Charles H. Miller, director of music in the Public Schools at Rochester, N. Y., and George H. Gartlan, director of music in the Public Schools of New York City, spoke at the last meeting of the Academy in May on the question of music, and especially vocal music, in the Public Schools of the State.
Much discussion has prevailed and certain decisions have been arrived at regarding the claiming of a successful pupil by a teacher, an important point, and one which definitely settled should remove muchall feeling from the profession.
The question of an American opera company has been discussed at great length, for the giving of opera in the English language, to encourage the establishment of American opera, and the encouragement of the American singer.
Several out-of-town members have already been elected, which insures cooperation among prominent vocal teachers throughout the United States.
The members of the Academy so far elected are as follows: Walter L. Bogert, William S. Brady and Dudley Buck, all of New York City; Harold L. Butler, Lawrence, Kans.; Charles W. Clark, Chicago, 111.; Nicholas Douty, Philadelphia, Pa.; George Ferguson, New York City; Bush W. Foley, Cincinnati, Ohio; Yeatman Griffith, New York City; Karleton Hackett, Chicago, 111.; Victor Harris, Frederick H. Haywood, Wil fried Klamroth, Sergei Klibansky, Gardner Lamson, Isidor Luckstone, Francis Rogers, Oscar Saenger, Oscar Seagle, and George E. Shea, all of New York City; William Warren Shaw, Philadelphia, Pa.; Percy Rector Stephens, New York City; Stephen Townsend, Boston, Mass.; Charles A. White, Boston, Mass.; Myron W. Whitney, Washington, D .C., and Herbert Witherspoon, New York City.
The Academy sustained a great loss in the recent death of its beloved member, George Hamlin.
The officers of the academy are Herbert Witherspoon, chairman; Walter L. Bogert, secretary, and Oscar Saenger, treasurer.	R_
National Organists’ Rochester Convention, August 27
Reginald L. McAll, chairman of the executive committee, National Association of Organists, announces the following tentative program for the sixteenth annual convention, Rochester, N. Y., beginning Monday evening, August 27, with a Get-Together.
August 28: Addresses of welcome from representatives of the city of Rochester, The University of Rochester and Mr. Eastman, with response by President Noble; paper by Harold Thompson, Ph.D.; paper by F. W. Riesberg, A.A.G.O,. The Organist and Publicity; Demonstration of the organ in Kilbourne Hall (built by Skinner Organ Company), and recital by Harold Gleason; Demonstration of organ in the Eastman Theater by Desiderius D’Antalffy, and recital in Kilbourne Hall by T. Tertius Noble, organist of St. Thomas’ Church, New York. On August 29: Greetings front representatives of the Canadian College of Organists, Healey Willan, president; The American Guild of Organists, Frank L. Sealy, Warden; The American Organ Players’ Club and The Society of Theater Organists, Robert Berentsen, president; paper by Prof. H. C. Macdougall, subject The Country Organist; recital in Kilbourne Hall by S. Wesley Sears, representing the American Organ Players’ Club; Theater organ demonstration, by George C. Crook; concert in Eastman Theater, with the cooperation of the theater orchestra. On August 30: Demonstration in Eastman Theater under the auspices of the Society of Theater Organists; Round Table Conference, Herbert S. Sammond, on The Organist in the Community, and T. Tertius Noble on Choral Competitions; paper by H. Augustine Smith, professor in the Boston University School of Religion; a musicale in the residence of George Eastman, including Harold Gleason as soloist; recital in Kilbourne Hall by Healey Willan, Mus. Doc., president of the Canadian College of Organists; paper on Improvisation, illustrated at the organ by Healey Willan; recital in Kilbourne Hall by Palmer Christian, and the farewell banquet.
This organization was founded in January, 1922, as the result of a general feeling expressed by many of the vocal teachers in the City of New York, that some organization should be established for the purpose of dealing with questions incident to the practice of the art of teaching singing which are continually arising, many of which are becoming of more and more vital importance.
A number of prominent vocal teachers were invited by Herbert Witherspoon to a meeting at his house to take up the question of founding a society which would form a medium through which many necessary things might be accomplished, and which would in its turn bring about the discussion and improvement of the all important question of ethics in the musical profession. The result of this meeting was the formation of The American Academy of Teachers of Singing.
What Has Been Done.
The society is now in its second year of existence and more has been accomplished than was at first deemed possible in so short a time. Perhaps the most important thing that has been done has been the fostering of a real spirit of cooperation among these men for the general good of their profession. It has been extraordinary, and perhaps to a certain degree unexpected, that a number of professional men who have been for so many years rivals in their own field of endeavor, could and would meet upon equal ground, with an absolutely unselfish attitude and with no desire or attempt for personal gain.
This _ society is founded to discuss problems of ethics and to improve existing conditions in knowledge, culture and sincerity as well as good-fellowship. Article 2 of the by-laws gives it purposes as follows:
1.	To establish a code which will improve the ethical
principles and practice of the profession.
2.	The furtherance of knowledge and culture.
3.	The promotion of cooperation and good-fellowship.
From these three principles of activity as a foundation,
these men, who now number twenty-six of the most prominent vocal teachers in the United States, have gotten together in a marvelous spirit of cooperation and are taking up one by one important questions suggested by these three objects.
Purely American.
That the society is a purely American affair is shown by its name, and only American citizens are eligible for membership. It is not founded with any desire to proclaim that its members are any better than anybody else, or that they know more than anybody else, but that they hope, by their example, to bring about some improvement in the attitude of teacher to teacher, of teacher to pupil, of pupil to teacher and of teacher to public, which will be of benefit to all. The articles of membership are of the most rigid exaction, and loyalty to the cause is made a paramount issue.
Whether or not the society will eventually take up questions of importance regarding the actual art of singing, as concerns a vocal method, is for the future to decide, but a committee has already been appointed to consider English diction and pronunciation for singers.
The matter of advertising has received much attention and the members of the Academy stand together in their condemnation of false and misleading or bombastic advertising on the part of any teacher of singing. They proclaim that they stand for simple statements of absolute truth and unquestionable proof.
Much attention has been given to the musical education prevailing in the public schools throughout the country, with
Morgan-Stephens Conservatory Concerts
Theodora Morgan-Stephens, director of the Conservatory in Atlanta, gave a series of concerts in this, her twenty-second season, at the Atlanta Woman’s Club auditorium and in the Conservatory. Especially notable were the concerts in which violin classes and players from the north side public schools, Agnes Scott College class, and others, all in charge of Mrs. Morgan-Stephens, appeared. There are 250 pupils in these north side classes, and Sam Proger, who won a teacher’s diploma, is her first assistant. Awarding
MAX GEGNA
RUSSIAN CELLIST
Toured with
LUISA TETRAZZINI, 19201921־
and with
MARY GARDEN, 19221923־
AS SOLO CELLIST
Address: 149 Manhattan Ave., New York
Telephone Academy 1527
LATEST SONGS
BY
CHARLES WAKEFIELD CADMAN GERTRUDE ROSS and SAMUEL R. GAINES
.6«
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CADMAN
A Cry at Dawn (3 keys)
Face of the World (High)
Like Some Young Troubadour (2 keys) ROSS
Delight of the Out-of-Doors (2 keys)
A Roundup Lullaby (2 keys)
Work ! (Baritone) ....
GAINES
I’m a Wandrin’ (2 keys)
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