Amy Fay
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Amelia Muller Fay (1844 – November 9, 1928) was an American concert pianist, manager of the New York Women's Philharmonic Society, and chronicler best known for her memoirs of the European classical music scene. A pupil of Theodor Kullak, Fay traveled to Europe to study with Franz Liszt, eventually writing a comprehensive biographical sketch of the artist that can still be read today, as a part of the memoirs of her travels and studies in Germany.
Fay was born in 1844 in Bayou Goula, Louisiana. She was the third of six daughters and the fifth of nine children of the Rev. Charles Fay and Emily (Hopkins) Fay of Louisiana and St. Albans, Vermont and Charles Jerome Hopkins's niece. Her sister, Rose Emily Fay, married Theodore Thomas. Amy Fay studied piano under Professor John Knowles Paine of Harvard and at the New England Conservatory of Music. From 1869 to 1875, she continued her lessons in Germany, where she studied with the most prominent teachers of Europe; pianists Carl Tausig, Theodor Kullak, Franz Liszt, and Ludwig Deppe. Deppe's technique for piano revolutionized her playing and served as the method she herself was to use for her students in the years to come. See: List of music students by teacher: C to F#Amy Fay. On returning to Boston, Fay became well known for her piano "conversions": recitals preceded by short lectures. She moved to Chicago and New York, where she was associated with the Women's Philharmonic Society of New York. She died on November 9, 1928.
Bibliography
- Music Study in Germany by Amy Fay, 1880; originally published by the MacMillan Company, 1896; reprinted by Watson Press, 2007. Edited by her sister[1] Melusina Fay Peirce.
- The Deppe Finger Exercices for Rapidly Developing an Artistic Touch in Piano Forte Playing (carefully arranged, classified and explained by Amy Fay), Chicago, 1890, Straub & Co.
References
- ↑ Brown, John Howard. Lamb's Biographical Dictionary of the United States. Boston: James H. Lamb Company, 1900. California Digital Library. Web. 14 May 2013. Pg. 200.
External links
- Works by Amy Fay at Project Gutenberg
- Works by or about Amy Fay at Internet Archive
- "Amy Fay: America's Notable Woman of Music", TheFreeLibrary.com.
- "Amy Fay", AmericanMusicalWoman.WordPress.com.