Burnet Corwin Tuthill (November 16, 1888 – January 12, 1982) was an American conductor, composer and musicologist. He co-founded the National Association of Schools of Music and served as its secretary from 1924 to 1959. He also organized and became the first conductor of the Memphis Symphony Orchestra.

Biography

Tuthill was born in New York City on November 16, 1888, the son of

Carnegie Hall Carnegie Hall ( ) is a concert venue in Midtown Manhattan in New York City. It is at 881 Seventh Avenue (Manhattan), Seventh Avenue, occupying the east side of Seventh Avenue between West 56th Street (Manhattan), 56th and 57th Street (Manhatta ...

architect

William Tuthill William Burnet Tuthill (February 11, 1855 – August 25, 1929) was an American architect celebrated for designing New York City's Carnegie Hall. Early life, education and family William Burnet Tuthill was born on February 11, 1855 in Hoboken, ...

. He received his B.A. from Columbia University in 1909. He played clarinet in the Columbia University Orchestra and later became its conductor. After Columbia, Tuthill began a career in business. From 1922 to 1930, he was business manager of the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music. He studied at the

Cincinnati College of Music The Cincinnati Conservatory of Music was a Music school, conservatory, part of a girls' finishing school, founded in 1867 in Cincinnati, Ohio. It merged with the College of Music of Cincinnati in 1955, forming the University of Cincinnati – Col ...

between 1930 and 1935, earning a master's degree in 1935. He did not begin to compose until 1927, when he was 39 years of age. Tuthill became music director of

Southwestern at Memphis The points of the compass are a set of horizontal, radially arrayed compass directions (or azimuths) used in navigation and cartography. A compass rose is primarily composed of four cardinal directions—north, east, south, and west—each sepa ...

(now Rhodes College) after receiving his degree. He later became music director of the Memphis College of Music, which later merged with Rhodes, and founded the Memphis Symphony Orchestra, serving as conductor from 1938 to 1946. Among his students in the Memphis College of Music was the composer Moondog. Tuthill founded the Society for the Publication of American Music (SPAM) in 1919 and the National Association of Schools of Music (NASM) in 1924, serving as its secretary from 1924 to 1959. Tuthill died in Knoxville, Tennessee, on January 12, 1982.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Tuthill, Burnet 1888 births Columbia College (New York) alumni Rhodes College faculty American conductors (music) 1982 deaths University of Cincinnati – College-Conservatory of Music alumni 20th-century American musicologists