Katherine Frazier

Katherine Maria Frazier (January 28, 1882 – 1944), also seen as Katharine Frazier, was an American musician and arts administrator. In 1923 she opened a theatre in Cummington, Massachusetts, which in 1927 became part of Frazier's Cummington School of the Arts, offering summer residencies, camps, and a performance venue for visual artists, musicians, and writers.

Katherine Frazier
BornJanuary 28, 1882
Slingerlands, New York
Died1944
Cummington, Massachusetts
Other namesKatharine Frazier
Occupation(s)Musician, educator, arts administrator
RelativesJohn I. Slingerland (great-uncle)

Early life and education

Frazier was born in Slingerlands, New York, and raised in Amsterdam, New York, the daughter of Leonard A. Frazier and Catharine A. Slingerland Frazier. Her father was a physician.[1] Her mother's uncle was abolitionist Congressman John I. Slingerland. She graduated from Mount Holyoke College in 1902.[2][3] She studied music in Paris in 1908 and 1909.[4]

Career

Music

Frazier was a concert harpist,[5][6][7] a member of the Carlos Salzedo Harp Ensemble,[8][9] and director of the Trio Eleu,[10] the Smith College Harp Ensemble[11] and the Phaneian Harp Ensemble.[12] She was also a pianist and organist.[1] She worked at Smith College,[13][14] as head of the harp and piano programs.[15] She was assistant to editor Carlos Salzedo at the Eolian Review,[16] and general secretary of the National Association of Harpists.[17]

Cummington School and Cummington Press

In 1923 Frazier opened The Music Box, also known as Playhouse-in-the-Hills, in Cummington, Massachusetts,[3] which became part of Frazier's progressive Cummington School of the Arts.[13][18][19] She intended to provide a pastoral setting and minimal distractions[20] for summer residencies,[21] classes,[22] camps, and a performance venue for visual artists, musicians, and writers including Diane Arbus,[23][24] Amy Clampitt,[25] Chaim Gross,[26] Willem de Kooning, Helen Frankenthaler, and Marianne Moore.[27]

Frazier and Harry Duncan were directors of the Cummington Press,[28] a small but influential press[29] that published works by William Carlos Williams,[30] Robert Lowell,[31] Wallace Stevens, and other poets.[32][33] In the early 1940s, she sold her concert harp to fund new equipment for the press.[34]

Publications
  • "Aim IX" (1921)[35]
  • "The Esthetic and the Exact" (1922, with Vera Gushee)[16]

Personal life and legacy

Frazier died from cancer in 1944, at the age of 62, in Cummington.[34][36] There was a memorial chamber music concert at the Playhouse-in-the-Hills after her death.[37]

The records of the Cummington School of the Arts from Frazier's years are in special collections at University of Massachusetts Amherst.[27] There are also papers related to Frazier in the Cummington Press records at Emory University.[36] The Cummington Community of the Arts program closed in 1993,[38] and Cummington Press moved to Iowa in 1956 before it closed in 1997;[34] but the Community House still stands and offers art exhibits and other cultural events.[39] There is a Frazier Lane in Cummington.[40]

References
  1. "Dr. Frazier Retires". Altamont Enterprise. May 17, 1912. p. 16 – via NewspaperArchive.com.
  2. "Alumnae Notes". The Mount Holyoke. 25 (8): 561. April 1916.
  3. "Phases of Work at Music Box Described; Katherine Frazier, Founder, Speaks Before Mount Holyoke College Club". Pittsfield Berkshire Evening Eagle. November 17, 1928. p. 6 – via NewspaperArchive.com.
  4. "Notes on Contributors: Katharine Frazier". Eolian Review. 1 (1): 25. December 1921.
  5. "Harpist Entertains at Faculty Club". Connecticut College News. April 24, 1926. p. 1. Retrieved June 19, 2023.
  6. "Fine Concert Promised". Greenfield Daily Recorder. 1917-12-05. p. 4. Retrieved 2023-06-19 – via Newspapers.com.
  7. "Unusual Musicale Greatly Enjoyed". The North Adams Transcript. 1929-03-12. p. 20. Retrieved 2023-06-20 – via Newspapers.com.
  8. "Salzédo Harp Ensemble; van Dresser, Soloist". Musical Courier. 75: 16. December 27, 1917.
  9. "Member of Salzedo Harp Ensemble". Altamont Enterprise. January 4, 1918. p. 15. Retrieved June 19, 2023 – via NewspaperArchive.com.
  10. "Katherine Frazier Activities". The Crescendo. 13 (11): 7. May 1921.
  11. "Smith College Harp Ensemble Heard in Recital of French Music". Musical America. 29: 35. February 15, 1919.
  12. "Music and Dramatics". Mount Holyoke Alumnae Quarterly. 4 (1): 35. April 1920.
  13. Liebenow, Carolyn (1999-08-09). "Cummington's arts community forged from nature, creativity". Daily Hampshire Gazette. pp. 1, 4. Retrieved 2023-06-19 – via Newspapers.com.
  14. "News from Northampton". The Smith Alumnae Quarterly. 5: 178. April 1914.
  15. "Opening Recital at Cummington Playhouse". Pittsfield Berkshire Evening Eagle. June 21, 1930. p. 12 – via NewspaperArchive.com.
  16. Frazier, Katharine, and Vera Gushee. "The Esthetic and the Exact" Eolian Review 1(3)(July 1922): 10-15.
  17. Frazier, Katharine. "A Note to the Members of the N. A. of H., Inc." Eolian Review 1(3)(July 1922): 21.
  18. Foster, Helen H. (1974). Only One Cummington: A Book in Two Parts. Cummington Historical Commission.
  19. "Progressive School in Cummington Hills Extends its Program". The Berkshire Eagle. 1931-06-13. p. 5. Retrieved 2023-06-19 – via Newspapers.com.
  20. "Plans for Art Center at Cummington Are Announced". The Berkshire Eagle. 1930-11-11. p. 4. Retrieved 2023-06-20 – via Newspapers.com.
  21. Korelitz, Jeanne Hanff (1990-08-24). "Cummington, A Place For Artists With Space for Children". Daily Hampshire Gazette. pp. 42, 43, 44, 45. Retrieved 2023-06-19 – via Newspapers.com.
  22. "Summer School Director is Speaker; Miss Katherine Frazier of Cummington Addresses Pittsfield Art League". The Berkshire Eagle. 1932-04-15. p. 4. Retrieved 2023-06-19 – via Newspapers.com.
  23. Bosworth, Patricia (2005). Diane Arbus: A Biography. W. W. Norton & Company. p. 41. ISBN 978-0-393-32661-1.
  24. O'Heir, Jeff (1990-05-24). "A rural haven for artists". Transcript-Telegram. p. 13. Retrieved 2023-06-19 – via Newspapers.com.
  25. Spiegelman, Willard (2023-02-28). Nothing Stays Put: The Life and Poetry of Amy Clampitt. Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group. ISBN 978-0-525-65827-6.
  26. "Playhouse-in-the-Hills Offers Scholarships for Summer Study". The Berkshire Eagle. 1936-04-06. p. 4. Retrieved 2023-06-19 – via Newspapers.com.
  27. "Cummington School of the Arts Records". University of Massachusetts, Special Collections & University Archives. Retrieved 2023-06-18.
  28. Richmond, Mary L. (November 1967). "The Cummington Press". Books at Iowa. 7 (1): 9–31. doi:10.17077/0006-7474.1298. ISSN 2378-4830.
  29. Foster, Ed (1983-12-21). "Cummington--cradle of many poets". Daily Hampshire Gazette. p. 29. Retrieved 2023-06-19 – via Newspapers.com.
  30. Mariani, Paul L. (1994). Lost Puritan: A Life of Robert Lowell. W. W. Norton & Company. p. 104. ISBN 978-0-393-31374-1.
  31. Hamilton, Ian (2011-09-15). Robert Lowell: A Biography. Faber & Faber. ISBN 978-0-571-28262-3.
  32. Klarén, Ron (1990). "Wallace Stevens and the Cummington Press: A Correspondence, 1941-1951". The Wallace Stevens Journal. 14 (1): 62–70. ISSN 0148-7132. JSTOR 44884172.
  33. Filreis, Alan (2014-07-14). Wallace Stevens and the Actual World. Princeton University Press. p. 37. ISBN 978-1-4008-6170-5.
  34. Reiken, Rick (1997-09-26). "The Hilltown Muse; Why Cummington Lures the Literary". Daily Hampshire Gazette. pp. 8, 9, 10, 11, 22. Retrieved 2023-06-20 – via Newspapers.com.
  35. Frazier, Katharine (December 1921). "Aim IX". Eolian Review. 1 (1): 20–21.
  36. "Collection: Cummington Press records and Harry Duncan papers". Emory Libraries ArchivesSpace. Retrieved 2023-06-19.
  37. "Chamber Music Recital to Have Katherine Frazier". The Berkshire County Eagle. 1944-08-02. p. 6. Retrieved 2023-06-19 – via Newspapers.com.
  38. "Cummington arts retreat faces extinction due to financial fate". The Berkshire Eagle. 1994-02-14. p. 10. Retrieved 2023-06-20 – via Newspapers.com.
  39. Johnson, Joanna (2011-06-23). "Coming to Cummington". The Berkshire Eagle. Retrieved 2023-06-18.
  40. Reiken, Rick (1997-08-16). "Cummington Arts Community Thrives". Daily Hampshire Gazette. p. 13. Retrieved 2023-06-19 – via Newspapers.com.
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