Cecil Cowles
Personal life
Cowles was known as a child prodigy, making her pianist debut at a concert when she was 8 years old.{{cite news|title=Girl Musician To Give A Concert |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/25627264/the_san_francisco_call/|newspaper=The San Francisco Call|date=November 18, 1910|page=11|via = Newspapers.com|access-date = November 23, 2018}} {{free access}} Her mother was a well known musician and her father had the ability to play exactly what he heard, just like Cowles was able to do from a young age.{{cite news|title=Cecil Marion Cowles, An Infant Musical Prodigy |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/25626954/san_francisco_chronicle/|newspaper=The San Francisco Chronicle|date=June 6, 1897|page=12|via = Newspapers.com|access-date = November 23, 2018}} {{free access}} She studied at the Von Einde School in New York and later at the Von Meyernick School in California. Her piano instructors were Hugo Mansfeldt and Sigismund Stojowski, with her composition being taught by Carl Deis.{{cite book |last=I. Cohen |first=Aaron |date=1981 |title=International Encyclopedia of Women Composers |publisher=R. R. Bowker Company |page=[https://archive.org/details/roni00aaro/page/113 113] |isbn=0835212882 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/roni00aaro/page/113 }}
Career
On February 8, 1907, Thomas Nunan of The San Francisco Examiner wrote that she is not a prodigy, but rather a genius. At the time of the article's publication, Cowles was 14 years old and had written 24 compositions, including one of an opera and a ragtime piece. The night before the San Francisco Examiner article was published, she played the piano at Lyric Hall to a full audience. There was a reception held for Cowles at the end of her recital which had most of the audience attend, an affair that lasted for over 30 minutes.{{cite news|title=Cecil Cowles Is No Mere Prodigy|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/25627151/the_san_francisco_examiner/|newspaper=The San Francisco Examiner|date=February 8, 1907|page=7|via = Newspapers.com|access-date = November 23, 2018}} {{free access}} On November 22, 1910, Cowles played her own compositions at a Century Club Music Hall concert and the event was called "one of the memorable music affairs of the season" by The San Francisco Call.{{cite news|title=Composer Gives Splendid Concert |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/25627467/the_san_francisco_call/|newspaper=The San Francisco Call|date=November 23, 1910|page=4|via = Newspapers.com|access-date = November 23, 2018}} {{free access}} At the concert, her songs were sung by "distinguished soprano soloist" Helen Colburn Heath.{{cite news|title=The Cecil Cowles Concert |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/25627370/the_san_francisco_examiner/|newspaper=The San Francisco Chronicle|date=November 20, 1910|page=80|via = Newspapers.com|access-date = November 23, 2018}} {{free access}} Cowles made her first professional appearance on August 20, 1911, at the Savoy Theatre as a duchess in the musical The Rich Mr. Guggenhelmer, in which she sang one of her own songs.{{cite news|title=Footlights Win Cecil Cowles Genius Adopts Stage Career |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/25627899/the_san_francisco_examiner/|newspaper=The San Francisco Examiner|date=August 12, 1911|page=3|via = Newspapers.com|access-date = November 23, 2018}} {{free access}}
Cowles has an entry in the book Fifty local prodigies, 1906–1940, a selection of prodigies from San Francisco.{{cite book |date=1940 |title=Fifty local prodigies, 1906–1940 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=psA4AQAAIAAJ&q=Cecil+Marion+Cowles |publisher=AMS Press |page=25|isbn=9780404072407 }} San Francisco Examiner reporter Thomas Nunan wrote, "Prodigies are numerous; they are found everywhere. But Cecil Cowles is a genius, and children of her class are few." Nunan also wrote a November 23, 1910, article for the same newspaper, stating that Cowles is a genius at 17 years old. People, including Cowles, asked Nunan for his opinion on a comparison between her and Liza Lehmann which Nunan's opinion was that
Miss Cowles is a far better pianist than is the English composer. But the latter knows thoroughly the grammar of music, and the rhetoric of it, too, and she knows exactly what did Omar meant, and until our young composer is schooled in these things she must not expect to outclass the greatest woman of English song.{{cite news|title=Cecil Cowles, At 17, Is Hailed As Genius |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/25627619/the_san_francisco_examiner/|newspaper=The San Francisco Examiner|date=November 23, 1910|page=4|via = Newspapers.com|access-date =November 23, 2018}} {{free access}}
References
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Category:20th-century American composers
Category:20th-century American women pianists
Category:20th-century American pianists
Category:Pianists from San Francisco
Category:Composers from San Francisco