The first successful American woman composer of large-scale works, Amy Cheney could improvise counter-melodies at age two, taught herself to read music at three, and began playing her own works at her first public recitals at seven. From 16 to 18 she impressed Boston audiences with virtuosic performances of Chopin and Mendelssohn concertos.
In 1885 she married surgeon and Harvard lecturer Dr. Henry Harris Aubrey Beach, 24 years her senior. At his request, Amy agreed to give up performing… save two charity concerts a year… focusing on composition instead.
Over the next 25 years her disciplined routine produced important large-scale works: Her Mass in B-flat Major was the first work by a woman to be performed by Boston’s Handel and Haydn Society, and the Boston Symphony Orchestra premiered her Gaelic Symphony… the first composed and published by an American woman. Commissions from across the continent followed.
After the death of her husband in 1910 Beach resumed performance, touring Europe where she was recognized as the first American woman performing and composing at a European level. Upon her return home Beach continued to tour in the U.S., and spent her summers composing at the MacDowell artist colony.
As a leader, Beach promoted the music and careers of talented women through the Music Teachers National Association, the Music Educators National Conference, and the Society of American Women Composers.
Amy Cheney Beach… a Composing Woman.
Repertoire
“Gaelic” Symphony in e minor, op. 32
Three Shakespeare Choruses, op. 39
Piano Concerto in c# minor, op.45
Piano Quintet, op. 67
Piano Trio, op. 150
Pastorale for woodwind quintet, op. 151
Supporting Materials
Images
Image of Amy Beach from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amy_Beach
Image of Amy Beach from 1908, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amy_Beach
Amy Beach as a young woman, from https://www.library.unh.edu/special/images/finaid/beach/young/pages/e.8.html
Amy Beach standing with her husband, Dr. Henry Harris Aubrey Beach.
From https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/01/arts/music/amy-beach-women-american-composer.html
Accessible websites relevant to the composer
https://www.amybeach.org/
