Rebecca Wilder Holmes (June 12, 1871 – January 17, 1953) was an American musician. She was a violinist, and taught at

Mount Holyoke College Mount Holyoke College is a private liberal arts women's college in South Hadley, Massachusetts. It is the oldest member of the historic Seven Sisters colleges, a group of elite historically women's colleges in the Northeastern United States. ...

and

Smith College Smith College is a Private university, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts Women's colleges in the United States, women's college in Northampton, Massachusetts. It was chartered in 1871 by Sophia Smith (Smith College ...

. She was founder and first director of the Smith College Symphony Orchestra.

Early life and education

Holmes was born in Benson, Vermont, the daughter of Henry M. Holmes and Elizabeth Wilder Holmes. Her father was a clergyman. Her maternal uncle Solon Wilder was a composer, hymn writer, and music educator; her cousin

Harris Hawthorne Wilder Harris Hawthorne Wilder (April 7, 1864 – February 27, 1928) was an American zoologist and anatomist. He was professor of zoology at Smith College in Massachusetts, where for 36 years until his death. He was the first American to study dermatogl ...

was a biology professor at Smith College. She trained as a violinist in Berlin, under Joseph Joachim, with further studies under

Hugo Heermann Hugo Heermann (3 March 1844, in Heilbronn – 6 November 1935, in Meran, Italy) was a German violinist. He studied the violin with Lambert Joseph Meerts at the Koninklijk Conservatorium in Brussels, and later with Joseph Joachim. From 1864 he ...

in Frankfurt and Julius Eichberg in Boston.

Career

Holmes taught and played violin concerts in New England in the 1890s. She was described as a "gifted young violinist", "making rapid strides to the front in her profession", in 1900. She played a Guarneri violin made in 1721 and an

Amati violin Amati (, ) is the last name of a family of Italian violin makers who lived at Cremona from about 1538 to 1740. Their importance is considered equal to those of the Bergonzi, Guarneri, and Stradivari families. Today, violins created by Nicolò ...

made in 1660 at a chamber concert in 1904. She was a professor of music at Smith College from the 1890s until her retirement in 1936. She was founder and director of the Smith College Symphony Orchestra. She also taught violin at Mount Holyoke College. From 1924 to 1925 she taught at the Springfield National Institute of Musical Art. She had a well-known collection of antique instruments and old musical manuscripts, many of them gathered on visits to Europe.

Publications

* "Plan of Study in Outside Violin Instruction as Basis for Credit in the High School" (1917) * ''Progressive Scale and Chord Studies for the Violin'' (1922) * "Harmonics in Theory and Practice" (1925, musical composition)

Personal life

Holmes lived with an older brother and a niece in Los Angeles in her later years. She died there in 1953, at the age of 81. Her niece and namesake Rebecca Haight Hathaway was a cellist. Her collection of musical instruments was sold or donated to Smith College by 1974, and one of her

harp guitars The harp guitar is a guitar-based stringed instrument generally defined as a "guitar, in any of its accepted forms, with any number of additional unstopped strings that can accommodate individual plucking." The word "harp" is used in reference to ...

is in the musical instrument collection of the

Museum of Fine Arts, Boston The Museum of Fine Arts (often abbreviated as MFA Boston or MFA) is an art museum in Boston, Massachusetts. It is the 20th-largest art museum in the world, measured by public gallery area. It contains 8,161 paintings and more than 450,000 works ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Holmes, Rebecca Wilder 1871 births 1953 deaths Smith College faculty Mount Holyoke College faculty American violinists American women violinists American music educators American women music educators People from Benson, Vermont