Mary Ann Feldman (April 20, 1933 - February 18, 2019) was an American music critic. Born Mary Ann Janisch in

St. Paul Paul; grc, Παῦλος, translit=Paulos; cop, ⲡⲁⲩⲗⲟⲥ; hbo, פאולוס השליח (previously called Saul of Tarsus;; ar, بولس الطرسوسي; grc, Σαῦλος Ταρσεύς, Saũlos Tarseús; tr, Tarsuslu Pavlus; ...

Minnesota Minnesota () is a state in the upper midwestern region of the United States. It is the 12th largest U.S. state in area and the 22nd most populous, with over 5.75 million residents. Minnesota is home to western prairies, now given over to ...

, Feldman grew up in the Frogtown neighborhood of the city. Her parents were the proprietors of a small restaurant there.Ross, Jenna, She was educated at the

University of Minnesota The University of Minnesota, formally the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, (UMN Twin Cities, the U of M, or Minnesota) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul, Tw ...

, where she studied journalism and music history and received a BA in 1954. While there she wrote music reviews for the ''

Minnesota Daily The ''Minnesota Daily'' is the campus newspaper of the University of Minnesota, published Monday and Thursday while school is in session, and published weekly on Wednesdays during summer sessions. Published since 1900, the paper is currently the la ...

'' under the pseudonym "V. I. Olin". In 1957 she completed her MA in musicology at

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

, which she had chosen for the opportunity to study with

Paul Henry Lang Paul Henry Lang (August 28, 1901 – September 21, 1991) was a Hungarian-American musicologist and music critic. Career Lang was born as "Pál Láng" in Budapest, Hungary, and was educated in Catholic schools. In 1918, as World War I was coming ...

. In 1983 she received a Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota, where she took as the subject of her dissertation

George Putnam Upton George Putnam Upton (18341919) was an American journalist and author. Biography George Putnam Upton was born in Roxbury, Massachusetts on October 25, 1834. He took an MA at Brown University in 1854, and soon after started writing for newspape ...

; she had previously taught at the university for a number of years. In 1963 she began to work for the

Minnesota Orchestra The Minnesota Orchestra is an American orchestra based in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Founded originally as the Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra in 1903, the Minnesota Orchestra plays most of its concerts at Minneapolis's Orchestra Hall. History Em ...

, where she would spend four decades working in the fields of music advising and public affairs. Among her many roles there, she edited the monthly program books; gave pre-concert lectures; aided in the establishments of the yearly Sommerfest; and assisted in documenting the organization's history. Her program notes were especially well-regarded, being described by one writer as "erudite and witty". From 1977 until 1981 Feldman was a member of the board of directors of the Music Critics Association; until 1986 she was the vice-president of the

Metropolitan Opera The Metropolitan Opera (commonly known as the Met) is an American opera company based in New York City, resident at the Metropolitan Opera House at Lincoln Center, currently situated on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. The company is operat ...

for the

Upper Midwest The Upper Midwest is a region in the northern portion of the U.S. Census Bureau's Midwestern United States. It is largely a sub-region of the Midwest. Although the exact boundaries are not uniformly agreed-upon, the region is defined as referring ...

. Beginning in 1996 she worked for the Grand Teton Music Festival as a writer and speaker. Her interests during her career included such diverse topics as theories of music criticism; the history of music critics active in the

Western United States The Western United States (also called the American West, the Far West, and the West) is the region comprising the westernmost states of the United States. As American settlement in the U.S. expanded westward, the meaning of the term ''the Wes ...

; and the musical history of Minnesota. Her writing appeared in such outlets as ''

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 ...

'', ''

Opera News ''Opera News'' is an American classical music magazine. It has been published since 1936 by the Metropolitan Opera Guild, a non-profit organization located at Lincoln Center which was founded to engender the appreciation of opera and also support ...

'', the ''

Minneapolis Star The ''Star Tribune'' is the largest newspaper in Minnesota. It originated as the ''Minneapolis Tribune'' in 1867 and the competing ''Minneapolis Daily Star'' in 1920. During the 1930s and 1940s, Minneapolis's competing newspapers were consolida ...

'', and the ''

New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians ''The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians'' is an encyclopedic dictionary of music and musicians. Along with the German-language ''Die Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart'', it is one of the largest reference works on the history and theo ...

'', as well as publications of the Schubert Club International Artists Series. Feldman died in Minneapolis of complications from

Alzheimer's disease Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a neurodegeneration, neurodegenerative disease that usually starts slowly and progressively worsens. It is the cause of 60–70% of cases of dementia. The most common early symptom is difficulty in short-term me ...

, from which she had suffered for more than a decade. Her husband, Harold, a computer technician, died of

dementia Dementia is a disorder which manifests as a set of related symptoms, which usually surfaces when the brain is damaged by injury or disease. The symptoms involve progressive impairments in memory, thinking, and behavior, which negatively affe ...

in 2016. She is buried in

Lakewood Cemetery Lakewood Cemetery is a large private, non-sectarian cemetery located in Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States. It is located at 3600 Hennepin Avenue at the southern end of the Uptown area. It is noted for its chapel which is on the National Re ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Feldman, Mary Ann 1933 births 2019 deaths American women journalists American music critics American women music critics 20th-century American journalists 20th-century American women writers 21st-century American journalists 21st-century American women writers American public relations people Writers from Saint Paul, Minnesota Journalists from Minnesota University of Minnesota alumni Columbia University alumni University of Minnesota faculty Neurological disease deaths in Minnesota Deaths from Alzheimer's disease Burials at Lakewood Cemetery American women academics