Carolyn Beebe

Carolyn Beebe
Carolyn Beebe, from a 1922 publication
Born	Carolyn Harding Beebe (1873-09-30)September 30, 1873 Westfield, New Jersey
Died	September 24, 1950(1950-09-24) (aged 76) Mystic, Connecticut
Nationality	American
Other names	Carolyn Beebe Whitehouse
Occupation(s)	Pianist, music educator, arts administrator
Years active	1900-1945
Known for	Founder and director of the New York Chamber Music Society, 1915-1937

Carolyn Harding Beebe (September 30, 1873 – September 24, 1950) was an American pianist born in Westfield, New Jersey. Her formal training first began when she was twelve with her aunt, Charlotte Beebe. Eventually, she began her studies under Joseph Mosenthal. She later moved abroad to Europe in 1903 to study under Moritz Moszkowski, and though she had been performing for years prior, had her formal debut in 1905. When she moved back to the United States she began her career as a teacher for The Institute of Musical Art, which would be later known has The Julliard School. She founded the New York Chamber Music Society in 1916, and the society had their last performance in 1937. She received a medal from the National Federation of Music Clubs in 1945 to recognize her and the New York Chamber Music Society.^[1]

Early life

Carolyn Harding Beebe was born in Westfield, New Jersey. She was the daughter of Silas Edwin Beebe and Helen Louise Tift Beebe. Beebe discovered she could read music at three years old, and she had never been taught. She began taking lessons at age twelve with her first formal piano teacher; her aunt, Charlotte Beebe.^[1] She later became a piano student of musician Joseph Mosenthal, and from 1903 to 1905 studied in Europe with German composer Moritz Moszkowski.^[1][2]

Career

Beebe made her debut as a solo pianist in Berlin, 1905. She also toured in Berlin, Paris, and Hamburg as a young woman, and had a busy schedule of appearances in the United States and Canada.^[1] She taught on the faculty of Frank Damrosch's Institute of Musical Art. She played a series of recitals during the time of 1908-1912 in a duo with Belgian violinist Édouard Dethier,^[3][1] 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] When the Society had their debut on December 17, 1915,^[1] she was the only woman performing, and still the only woman in the group's eleven-member roster in 1917^[5] and in 1922.^[6] The Society gave first performances of dozens of new compositions, featuring works by Deems Taylor, Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, Henry Holden Huss, and Ethel Leginska.^{[7][8][9][10]}

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."^[11]

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

Personal life

Carolyn Beebe married a medical doctor, Henry Howard Whitehouse, in 1932.^[13] Whitehouse died in 1938. Carolyn Beebe Whitehouse died in 1950, aged 76 years, in Mystic, Connecticut.^[2]

References

External links

• A photograph of Carolyn Beebe at the piano, from the Philip Hale Photograph Collection, Boston Public Library.
• Carolyn Beebe at Find a Grave