Women’s Wednesdays: Celebrating Amy Beach
Amy Beach (born Amy Marcy Cheney) is often credited, and rightfully so, with paving the way for American women composers to achieve a visible place in 19th and 20th-century classical music. A child prodigy, Beach enjoyed success as a pianist from a young age, performing with organizations such as the Boston Symphony Orchestra as a teenager. When she married Henry Harris Aubrey Beach in 1885, he requested that she perform less in public, so she shifted her attention to composition, an area she was largely self-taught and highly successful in. Beach’s compositions were well-received during her life and she channeled her success into helping the advancement of other American women composers through a variety of leadership positions, including acting as the first president of the Society of American Women Composers.
Program:
4 Sketches, Op. 15 by Amy Beach (1867–1944)
I. In Autumn
II. Phantoms
III. Dreaming
Jennifer Li, piano
Romance for Violin and Piano, Op. 23 by Amy Beach (1867–1944)
Ann Rackl, violin
Selina Chu, piano