Isabel Morse Jones (1892 – September 4, 1951) was an American musician, arts patron, and clubwoman. She was the music and dance critic at the ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the U ...

'', from 1925 to 1947.

Early life

Isabel Morse was born in 1892 in Cleveland, Ohio, the daughter of Arthur Mason Morse. She was raised in Los Angeles, California. She attended Los Angeles High School and the

University of California, Los Angeles The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California S ...

. She was a descendant of painter and inventor

Samuel Morse Samuel Finley Breese Morse (April 27, 1791 – April 2, 1872) was an American inventor and painter. After having established his reputation as a portrait painter, in his middle age Morse contributed to the invention of a single-wire telegraph ...

. By 1915, she was living in

Hermosa Beach, California Hermosa Beach (''Hermosa'', Spanish language, Spanish for "Beautiful") is a beachfront city in Los Angeles County in the U.S. state of California, United States. Its population was 19,728 at the 2020 United States Census, 2020 U.S. Census. The c ...

, and hosting musical events at her home.

Career

Music and dance

Jones taught violin and played violin and cello in the Los Angeles Women's Symphony Orchestra. From 1925 until 1947, she was music and dance critic at the ''

''. She worked with her friend, society page editor

Crete Cage Lucretia Harvey Cage (September 4, 1881 – December 22, 1968), known as Crete Cage, was an American journalist and clubwoman who worked at the ''Los Angeles Times''. Her son was composer John Cage. Early life Lucretia Harvey was born in Iow ...

, to built support for a new concert hall for the Los Angeles Philharmonic. She admired the

modern dance Modern dance is a broad genre of western concert or theatrical dance which included dance styles such as ballet, folk, ethnic, religious, and social dancing; and primarily arose out of Europe and the United States in the late 19th and early 20th ...

of Martha Graham, but admitted that it wasn't for all dance lovers: "Graham either grips you with the power and truth of her creations or you resent her. There is no middle course." She also wrote about music on the Pacific Coast for the ''

Christian Science Monitor Christians () are people who follow or adhere to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. The words ''Christ'' and ''Christian'' derive from the Koine Greek title ''Christós'' (Χρισ ...

'' and the magazine ''

Musical America ''Musical America'' is the oldest American magazine on classical music, first appearing in 1898 in print and in 1999 online, at musicalamerica.com. It is published by Performing Arts Resources, LLC, of East Windsor, New Jersey. History 1898–19 ...

.'' Jones lectured on music to community and professional groups, and spoke about music on Los Angeles radio programs. She was a founder of the Los Angeles Bureau of Music, and a founding member of the Los Angeles County Music Commission. She also supported the founding of Henry Cowell's New Music Society in Los Angeles, in 1925.

Hollywood Bowl

Jones served a press agent for the Hollywood Bowl, and wrote a history of the venue in 1936. She favorably reviewed Frank Sinatra's Hollywood Bowl concert with the Los Angeles Philharmonic in 1943, saying "He is a romantic and a dreamer and a careful dresser and he loves beautiful words and music is his hobby."

Personal life

Isabel Morse married Dr. Carroll Welborn Jones in 1923. They had a daughter, Carolyn Mason Jones, who became a noted opera photographer. Isabel Morse Jones died while staying with her daughter in Rome in 1951.

References

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Jones, Isabel Morse 1892 births 1951 deaths American cellists American music critics American women music critics People from Cleveland American violinists American women violinists Los Angeles Times people The Christian Science Monitor people Los Angeles High School alumni University of California, Los Angeles alumni People from Hermosa Beach, California 20th-century cellists