Dora Valesca Becker
{{Short description|American musician (1870–1958)}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=December 2019}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Dora Valesca Becker
| image = DoraValescaBecker1908.tif
| alt = A white woman, standing, wearing a white lacy gown with bare shoulders; she is holding a violin under her right arm, and a bow in her right hand. The background is dark.
| caption = Dora Valesca Becker, from a 1908 publication
| birth_name =
| birth_date = {{Birth date|1870|03|07}}
| birth_place = Galveston, Texas
| death_date = {{Death date and age|1958|05|19|1870|03|07}}
| death_place = Pennsylvania
| nationality = American
| other_names = Dora Valeska Becker, Dora V. Becker, Dora Becker Shaffer
| occupation = Violinist
| years_active =
| known_for =
| notable_works =
}}
Dora Valesca Becker (March 7, 1870 – May 19, 1958) was an American violinist. In 1898, she became the first female violinist to play on a musical recording.
Early life
Dora Valesca Becker was born in Galveston, Texas and raised in New York, the daughter of Francis Louis Becker and Maria Antonia Tekla Langhammer. Her father was conductor of the Galveston Singing Society, and her mother also had musical ambitions.{{Cite journal|last=Reddall|first=Frederic|date=August 1895|title=American Girls as Violinists|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1HNAAQAAMAAJ&q=Dora+Valeska+Becker&pg=RA8-PA3|journal=The Ladies' Home Journal|volume=12|pages=3}} She studied violin from an early age with Sam Franko and made her first appearance at Steinway Hall in 1880, aged 10 years. She studied with Joseph Joachim in Berlin as a young woman, on a Felix Mendelssohn scholarship.{{Cite web|url=https://slippedisc.com/2014/11/the-first-woman-violinist-on-record-any-guesses/|title=The first woman violinist on record. Any guesses?|last=Eschbach|first=Robert|date=November 6, 2014|website=Slipped Disc|access-date=2019-12-04}}
Her brother Gustav Louis Becker (1861–1959) was a pianist, composer, and arranger.{{Cite web|url=https://www.bach-cantatas.com/Lib/Becker-Gustav-Louis.htm|title=Gustav Louis Becker (Arranger) – Short Biography|website=Bach Cantatas|access-date=2019-12-04}}
Career
Becker returned to the United States after making her debut with the Berlin Philharmonic in 1890,{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=O_GRCkxiXVwC&q=Dora+Valeska+Becker&pg=PA49|title=Unsung: A History of Women in American Music|last=Ammer|first=Christine|date=2001|publisher=Hal Leonard Corporation|isbn=978-1-57467-061-5|pages=49|language=en}} and began the New York Ladies' Trio with pianist Mabel Phipps and cellist Flavie Van den Hende.{{Cite journal|date=January 12, 1898|title=New York Ladies' Trio in Detroit|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5JlCAQAAMAAJ&q=Dora+Valeska+Becker&pg=RA1-PA35|journal=Musical Courier|volume=36|pages=35}}{{Cite news|url=https://newspaperarchives.vassar.edu/?a=d&d=literary18970401-01.2.12|title=College News|date=April 1, 1897|work=Vassar Miscellany|access-date=December 4, 2019|pages=384–385|via=Vassar Newspaper Archives}} She became the first woman violinist to play on a musical recording in 1898, when she performed Henryk Wieniawski's "Mazurka Kujawiak" for a Bettini Phonograph Laboratory wax cylinder recording.{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-FOSAgAAQBAJ&q=Dora+Valeska+Becker&pg=PA2277|title=Encyclopedia of Recorded Sound|last=Hoffmann|first=Frank|date=2004-11-12|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-135-94950-1|language=en}}
She mostly left the concert stage in 1899, except for occasional accompaniment appearances and recitals.{{Cite journal|date=April 1915|title=Dora Becker in Newark|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lElGAQAAMAAJ&dq=%22Dora+Becker%22+music&pg=PA39|journal=The Violin World|pages=39}}{{Cite journal|date=February 1915|title=Dora Becker in Recitals|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lElGAQAAMAAJ&dq=%22Dora%20Becker%22%20music&pg=PA36-IA14|journal=The Violin World|pages=6}}{{Cite journal|date=May 10, 1917|title=Dora Becker Pleases at Paterson|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=x-w6AQAAMAAJ&dq=%22Dora%20Becker%22%20music&pg=RA18-PA12|journal=Musical Courier|pages=12}} She traveled and played in Europe in 1908.{{Cite journal|date=September 23, 1908|title=Dora Becker Back from Europe|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pS5MAQAAMAAJ&dq=%22Dora%20Becker%22%20music&pg=RA2-PR52|journal=Musical Courier|pages=7}}{{Cite journal|date=September 30, 1908|title=Dora Becker, Gifted American Violinist|journal=Musical Courier|pages=6}} After marriage, she lectured and taught music in New York and New Jersey, and was a member of the New York State Teachers' Association, the Newark Musicians' Club, and the Newark Contemporary Club.
Personal life
In 1899, Becker married organist Charles Grant Shaffer.{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qIEFAAAAMAAJ&q=%22Dora+Becker%22+music&pg=PA585|title=International Who's who in Music and Musical Gazetteer|date=1918|publisher=Current Literature Publishing Company|pages=585|language=en}}{{Cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/40081013/dora_valesca_becker_1903/|title=Violin and Organ Recital|date=November 27, 1903|work=Lewisburg Journal|access-date=December 4, 2019|page=5|via=Newspapers.com}} She died in 1958, aged 88 years, in Pennsylvania.
References
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External links
- {{Find a Grave|id=106732347|name=}}
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Category:American women classical violinists
Category:Musicians from Galveston, Texas
Category:Classical musicians from Texas
Category:19th-century classical violinists
Category:19th-century American musicians
Category:20th-century American women musicians
Category:20th-century American musicians