Carolyn Beebe

Carolyn Beebe (September 30, 1873 – September 24, 1950) was an American pianist, founder of the New York Chamber Music Society in 1915.

Carolyn Beebe
A middle-aged white woman standing almost in profile, wearing a short-sleeved light-colored gown. Her dark hair is arranged in an updo.
Carolyn Beebe, from a 1922 publication
Born
Carolyn Harding Beebe

(1873-09-30)September 30, 1873
Westfield, New Jersey
DiedSeptember 24, 1950(1950-09-24) (aged 76)
Mystic, Connecticut
NationalityAmerican
Other namesCarolyn Beebe Whitehouse
Occupation(s)Pianist, music educator, arts administrator
Years active1900-1945
Known forFounder and director of the New York Chamber Music Society, 1915-1937

Early life

Carolyn Harding Beebe was born in Westfield, New Jersey, the daughter of Silas Edwin Beebe and Helen Louise Tift Beebe. She was a piano student of musician Joseph Mosenthal, and from 1903 to 1905 studied in Europe with German composer Moritz Moszkowski.[1][2]

Career

Beebe performed as a pianist in Berlin, Paris, and Hamburg as a young woman, and had a busy schedule of appearances in the United States. She taught on the faculty of Frank Damrosch's Institute of Musical Art. She played recital in a duo with Belgian violinist Édouard Dethier,[3] and chamber music with the Kneisel Quartet and other groups. She also performed at a White House party for President Woodrow Wilson, and made piano roll recordings of several works.[1]

Beebe was founder (with Gustave Langenus) and director of the New York Chamber Music Society.[4] She was the only woman musician to play at the Society's first concert, at Aeolian Hall in December 1915,[5] and still the only woman in the group's eleven-member roster in 1917[6] and in 1922.[7] The Society gave first performances of dozens of new compositions, featuring works by Deems Taylor, Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, Henry Holden Huss, and Ethel Leginska.[8][9][10][11]

In 1919, she founded her own teaching studio near Carnegie Hall. Beebe declared radio "valuable to art" in a 1922 interview. "The radio audience in no different than the concert, opera, or vaudeville audience. It is composed of the same people, and whatever pleases them outside their homes will please them within their homes."[12]

She served on the board of the National Orchestral Association from 1930, and on the board of the National Association of American Composers and Conductors from 1933. She received a medal from the National Federation of Music Clubs in 1945.[1]

In 1926, the National Federation of Music Clubs began offering a prize named for Carolyn Beebe, for chamber music compositions.[13]

Personal life

Carolyn Beebe married a medical doctor, Henry Howard Whitehouse, in 1932.[14] Whitehouse died in 1938. Carolyn Beebe Whitehouse died in 1950, aged 76 years, in Mystic, Connecticut.[2]

References
  1. Kozenko, Lisa, "The New York Chamber Music Society, 1915-1937: A Contribution to Wind Chamber Music and a Reflection of Concert Life in New York City in the Early 20th Century" (DMA diss., City University of New York 2013): 27-41; CUNY Academic Works.
  2. "New York Chamber Music Society scores". Archives and Manuscripts, New York Public Library. Retrieved December 4, 2019.
  3. "Sonata Recital Tonight". The Topeka State Journal. February 23, 1911. p. 10. Retrieved December 4, 2019 – via Newspapers.com.
  4. "Carolyn Beebe, Founder of the New York Chamber Music Society". Musical Monitor. 10: 586. September 1921.
  5. Kozenko, Lisa (October 1, 2015). "The New York Chamber Music Society and Concert Life in the Early 20th Century". The Gotham Center for New York City History. Retrieved December 4, 2019.
  6. "Patriotic Throng at Carolyn Beebe's Red Cross Musicale". Times Union. March 12, 1917. p. 7. Retrieved December 4, 2019 – via Newspapers.com.
  7. "Eleven Artists in N. Y. Chamber Music Society". Middlebury Register. April 14, 1922. p. 1. Retrieved December 4, 2019 – via Newspapers.com.
  8. V. B. S. (May 1922). "Carolyn Beebe Gives Some Interesting Details in Connection with the Founding of the New York Chamber Music Society". Musical Observer. 21: 24.
  9. "New York Chamber Music Plays to Capacity". The Musical Leader. 43: 305. March 30, 1922.
  10. "Henry Holden Huss Writes For New York Chamber Music Society". Musical Courier. 74: 42. January 18, 1917.
  11. "Carolyn Beebe Presents Leginska Work". The Musical Leader. 43: 54. January 19, 1922.
  12. "Carolyn Beebe". The Wireless Age. 9: 47. August 1922.
  13. "Music Clubs Offer Another Reward for the Chamber Music". San Pedro Daily News. March 2, 1926. p. 7. Retrieved December 3, 2019 – via California Digital Newspaper Collection.
  14. "Carolyn Beebe Bride of Henry Whitehouse". The Courier-News. July 11, 1932. p. 10. Retrieved December 4, 2019 – via Newspapers.com.
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