Frances Oman Clark (March 28, 1905 – April 17, 1998) was an American

pianist A pianist ( , ) is an individual musician who plays the piano. Since most forms of Western music can make use of the piano, pianists have a wide repertoire and a wide variety of styles to choose from, among them traditional classical music, ja ...

pedagogue Pedagogy (), most commonly understood as the approach to teaching, is the theory and practice of learning, and how this process influences, and is influenced by, the social, political and psychological development of learners. Pedagogy, taken as ...

, and

academic An academy (Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of secondary education, secondary or tertiary education, tertiary higher education, higher learning (and generally also research or honorary membershi ...

who authored, co-authored and edited many widely used piano method books, most notably The Music Tree series. Her 1955 publication, ''Time to Begin'', introduced the concept of teaching music reading by pattern recognition, thus pioneering the "intervallic method," which "revolutionised" the teaching of music reading.

Biography

Clark received a bachelor's degree at

Kalamazoo College Kalamazoo College, also known as Kalamazoo, K College, KC or simply K, is a private liberal arts college in Kalamazoo, Michigan. Founded in 1833 by Baptist ministers as the Michigan and Huron Institute, Kalamazoo is the oldest private college in ...

in 1928 and also completed graduate work at

University of Michigan , mottoeng = "Arts, Knowledge, Truth" , former_names = Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania (1817–1821) , budget = $10.3 billion (2021) , endowment = $17 billion (2021)As o ...

The Juilliard School 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 elit ...

, The Paris Conservatory, and The American Academy at Fontainebleau. She went on to serve on the faculty at Kalamazoo College from 1945–1955, before joining the faculty of

Westminster Choir College Westminster Choir College (WCC) is a historic conservatory of music currently operating on the campus of Rider University in Lawrenceville, New Jersey. Rider's Westminster College of the Arts, the college under which the historic institution has b ...

and eventually co-founding The New School for Music Study in 1960, the first graduate school devoted to the study of music pedagogy.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Clark, Frances 1905 births 1998 deaths 20th-century American women pianists 20th-century American pianists