Annie Louise David

Annie Louise Berry was born in Boston,[1] the daughter of Charles Franklin Berry and Emily Morgan Berry. As a young woman she trained as a pianist with Arthur Foote,[2] Emil Mollenhauer,[3] Heinrich Gebhard, and Edward MacDowell.[4] Her harp training was with Heinrich Schucker of the Boston Symphony Orchestra.[2]

David was a concert harpist, "the complete mistress of her intricate instrument".[5] She was based in New York,[6][7] then in the San Francisco Bay area from the 1920s.[4][8] She toured with Alma Gluck, Sarah Bernhardt, Maggie Teyte, Olive Fremstad, and other singers.[9] She played a custom lavender-and-gold harp, and was sometimes promoted as the "Lavender Lady"[10] or "The Lady in Lavender".[4] A 1921 reviewer said that "There is about Miss David's playing a certain refinement and elegance which is truly admirable" and "she was honored with the heartiest and warmest kind of reception".[11]

David was a founding member of the National Association of Harpists, and of the Northern California chapter of the association.[12] She compiled and edited a collection of harp scores, Album of Solo Pieces for the Harp (1916), with works by Beethoven, Hasselmans, Fauré, Donizetti, Sinding, and others.[13] Margaret Hoberg Turrell composed her Concerto in B flat minor for David,[9] and Andre Kostelanetz wrote "Lake Louise" for her.[4]

David also taught harp students,[14] including Anne Everingham Adams, principal harpist for the San Francisco Symphony and San Francisco Opera.[15][16] She taught a master class in harp instruction at the Cornish School in Seattle in 1922.[17][18]

Berry married her manager, Walter C. David, in 1905;[19] they divorced in the 1910s. She died in 1960, in San Francisco, aged 82 years.[1]