Carolyn Beebe (September 30, 1873 – September 24, 1950) was an American pianist, founder of the New York Chamber Music Society in 1915.
Early life
Carolyn Harding Beebe was born in
Westfield, New Jersey
Westfield is a town in Union County, New Jersey, United States, located southwest of Manhattan. As of the 2010 United States census, the town's population was 30,316,Joseph Mosenthal, and from 1903 to 1905 studied in Europe with German composer Moritz Moszkowski.
Career
Beebe performed as a pianist in Berlin, Paris, and Hamburg as a young woman, and had a busy schedule of appearances in the United States. She taught on the faculty of
Frank Damrosch
Frank Heino Damrosch (June 22, 1859 – October 22, 1937) was a German-born American music conductor and educator. In 1905, Damrosch founded the New York Institute of Musical Art, a predecessor of the Juilliard School.
Life and career
Damrosch w ...
's
Institute of Musical Art
The Juilliard School ( ) is a private performing arts conservatory in New York City. Established in 1905, the school trains about 850 undergraduate and graduate students in dance, drama, and music. It is widely regarded as one of the most e ...
. She played recital in a duo with Belgian violinist Édouard Dethier, and chamber music with the
Kneisel Quartet
The Kneisel Quartet was a string quartet founded in 1885 by violinist Franz Kneisel, then concertmaster of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. It continued to perform until 1917, and was generally considered the leading string quartet of its time in t ...
and other groups. She also performed at a White House party for President
Woodrow Wilson
Thomas Woodrow Wilson (December 28, 1856February 3, 1924) was an American politician and academic who served as the 28th president of the United States from 1913 to 1921. A member of the Democratic Party, Wilson served as the president of ...
, and made piano roll recordings of several works.
Beebe was founder (with Gustave Langenus) and director of the New York Chamber Music Society. She was the only woman musician to play at the Society's first concert, at Aeolian Hall in December 1915, and still the only woman in the group's eleven-member roster in 1917 and in 1922. The Society gave first performances of dozens of new compositions, featuring works by Deems Taylor, Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, Henry Holden Huss, and
Ethel Leginska
Ethel Liggins (13 April 188626 February 1970) was a British pianist, conductor and composer. A student of Theodor Leschetizky, she became widely known as the ‘Paderewski of woman pianists’ and (from 1923) established herself as one of the fir ...
.
In 1919, she founded her own teaching studio near
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 ...
. Beebe declared radio "valuable to art" in a 1922 interview. "The radio audience in no different than the concert, opera, or vaudeville audience. It is composed of the same people, and whatever pleases them outside their homes will please them within their homes."
She served on the board of the National Orchestral Association from 1930, and on the board of the National Association of American Composers and Conductors from 1933. She received a medal from the National Federation of Music Clubs in 1945.Kozenko, Lisa "The New York Chamber Music Society, 1915-1937: A Contribution to Wind Chamber Music and a Reflection of Concert Life in New York City in the Early 20th Century" (DMA diss., City University of New York 2013): 27-41; ''CUNY Academic Works''.
In 1926, the National Federation of Music Clubs began offering a prize named for Carolyn Beebe, for chamber music compositions.
Personal life
Carolyn Beebe married a medical doctor, Henry Howard Whitehouse, in 1932. Whitehouse died in 1938. Carolyn Beebe Whitehouse died in 1950, aged 76 years, in Mystic, Connecticut.