Fay Foster
{{Short description|American composer and teacher (1886–1960)}}
Fay Foster (November 8, 1886 – April 17, 1960) was an American pianist, composer, and teacher.
Biography
Foster was born in Leavenworth, Kansas on November 8, 1886. She was a child prodigy, performing publicly by the age of 5, and professionally as organist and choir director by age 12. In Chicago she studied piano under William Hall Sherwood, voice under Mme Dove-Boitte, and theory with Frederick Grant Gleason.{{Cite book |title=The National Cyclopaedia of American Biography |publisher=James T. White & Company |year=1926 |location=New York |page=468}} At the age of 17 she went on a national tour playing the piano for Sherwood's Grand Opera Company. Following her Chicago studies, at the age of 19, she was appointed director of the Grand Prairie Seminary's Conservatory of Music in Onarga, Illinois.{{Cite journal |last=Foster |first=Fay |date=1912-01-01 |title=Sol' Down de Stream (voice and piano) |url=https://ecommons.udayton.edu/dunbar/120 |journal=Dunbar Music Archive}} In 1897 she opened a studio in Chicago's Steinway Hall to teach piano and theory.{{Cite journal |date=September 22, 1897 |title=Music in Chicago |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WY9CAQAAMAAJ&q=%22onarga%22%20%22conservatory%22%20%22fay%20foster%22&pg=RA11-PA17 |journal=The Musical Courier |volume=XXXV |issue=12 |page=17}}
In 1899 she travelled to Europe for twelve years, studying further under Heinrich Schwartz, Moritz Rosenthal, and Sofie Menter in Munich, and under Theodore Wiehmeyer, Alfred Reisenauer, and Salomon Jadassohn at the Leipzig Conservatory.{{Cite journal |last=Foster |first=Fay |date=May 15, 1915 |title=Beauty and Eccentricity as Combined in Sofie Menter |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Mkc0AQAAMAAJ&pg=RA23-PA122 |journal=Musical America |volume=XXII |issue=2 |page=13}} She studied singing under Siga Garso, Hans Weinhoppel and Alexander Heinemann. She performed opera for two years in Italy.
In 1910, Berlin's Die Woche sponsored an international contest for a waltz modelled on the Blue Danube. Her waltz "The Prairie Flower" (originally titled "Sit Illi Terra Levis"), judged by a panel headed by Johann Strauss III, won second prize out of 4,222 submissions.{{Cite news |title=WALTZ PRIZE FOR AMERICAN.; Miss Fay Foster Gets Second Award in Die Woche's Competition. |language=en |work=The New York Times |url=http://timesmachine.nytimes.comhttp//arch-timesmachine-fe-prd-40741-2-575473780.us-east-1.elb.amazonaws.com/timesmachine/1911/01/12/104817204.html?pageNumber=3 |access-date=2023-04-29}}
In early 1911 she returned to Kansas City to be with her sick father. Soon afterward she settled in New York City, establishing educational studios in Manhattan and in Hempstead. She divided her time between composing, teaching, and recital/accompanist work. She founded and directed the Foster Choral Club in Hempstead, Long Island.{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Mkc0AQAAMAAJ&pg=RA10-PA25 |title=Musical America |date=July 17, 1915 |publisher=Music Publications, Limited |page=25 |language=en}} She taught voice at the American Institute of Applied Music.{{Cite journal |date=September 1926 |title=Studio Notes |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vvDUkO6GtEYC&pg=RA6-PA33 |journal=The Musical Observer |volume=XXV |issue=9 |page=52}} With two of her AIAM colleagues Josef Berge and Gene Gravelle, she founded the Foster Trio vocal ensemble.{{Cite journal |date=July 1926 |title=Foster Trio a Decided Novelty |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vvDUkO6GtEYC&pg=RA6-PA33 |journal=The Musical Observer |volume=XXV |issue=7 |page=33}} From 1923 to 1933 she taught at the Ogontz School in Rydall, Pennsylvania.{{Cite news |title=FAY FOSTER |language=en |work=The New York Times |url=http://timesmachine.nytimes.comhttp//arch-timesmachine-fe-prd-40741-2-575473780.us-east-1.elb.amazonaws.com/timesmachine/1960/04/19/105427920.html?pageNumber=37 |access-date=2023-04-29}}
Foster was a prolific song composer.{{Cite journal |last=Pool |first=Jeannie G. |date=1979 |title=America's Women Composers: Up from the Footnotes |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/3395571 |journal=Music Educators Journal |volume=65 |issue=5 |pages=28–41 |doi=10.2307/3395571 |jstor=3395571 |s2cid=143442149 |issn=0027-4321}} She won first place in the American Composers Competition in 1913.{{cite book|title=International Encyclopedia of Women Composers|last=Cohen|first=Aaron I. |date=1981|publisher=R. R. Bowker Company|isbn=0835212882|page=[https://archive.org/details/roni00aaro/page/163 163] }} Her song "Are You For Me or Against Me?" won a prize in 1919 from the New York American, a competition with over 10,000 applicants. Foster was the only woman composer to win a prize.{{cite magazine |editor-last=Watt |editor-first=Charles E. |date=1920 |magazine= Music News |volume=12 |issue=1 |title=The Americans come |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SndFAQAAMAAJ&pg=RA2-PA20 |page=20}}
Her song "The Americans Come (An Episode in France in the Year 1918)" was her most widely heard composition, having become part of the American post-WWI propaganda effort.{{Cite news |title=SHOW 'DEVIL DOGS' IN TRAINING CAMP; Pictures of United States Marines Arouse Enthusiasmof Movie Audience.MAE MARSH IN NEW PLAYGeorge M. Cohan In "Hit-the-TrailHolliday" Has Great Chanceto Wave the Flag. George Cohan and Lots of Flags. Mae Marsh in New Play. |language=en |work=The New York Times |url=http://timesmachine.nytimes.comhttp//arch-timesmachine-fe-prd-40741-2-575473780.us-east-1.elb.amazonaws.com/timesmachine/1918/06/10/102708116.html?pageNumber=9 |access-date=2023-04-29}} George Harris Jr. and Margaret Romaine sang it on their tour in support of Liberty Loans, and Pathé contributed sales of its recording by Paul Althouse to the war bond effort. Reinald Werrenrath recorded it for RCA Victor.{{Cite book |last=Rubin |first=Richard |title=The last of the doughboys : the forgotten generation and their forgotten world war |date=2013 |isbn=978-0-547-84369-8 |location=Boston |publisher=Houghton Mifflin Harcourt |pages=104–105 |oclc=850180181}} It had performances at New York Hippodrome by John McCormack, by Lotta Madden and several others at New York's Wanamaker's, by Yvonne de Tréville in Washington DC, and by Schumann-Heink and Theodore Van Yorx.{{Cite journal |date=October 19, 1918 |title="The Americans Come!" Booming - Fay Foster Presents Autographed Pathe Record to Purchaser of a $1,000 Liberty Bond |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dZtQAAAAYAAJ&pg=RA18-PA32 |journal=The Music Trades |volume=LVI |issue=16 |page=32}}{{Cite journal |date=November 30, 1918 |title="The Americans Come!" Sung by McCormack |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dZtQAAAAYAAJ&pg=RA18-PA32 |journal=The Music Trades |volume=LVI |issue=22 |page=39}} In 1930 the song was turned into a short film by Alfred Mannon and Elmer Clifton featuring Otto Matieson.{{Cite book |last=Webb |first=Graham |title=Encyclopedia of American short films, 1926-1959 |date=2020 |isbn=978-1-4766-3926-0 |location=Jefferson, North Carolina |publisher= McFarland & Company |oclc=1165386404}}
She was a member of the Society of American Women Composers, Society of German Composers,{{Cite book |title=American Women |publisher=Richard Blank Publishing Company |year=1937 |editor-last=Howes |editor-first=Durward |volume=2 |pages=237}} the youngest admitted member of the Chicago Manuscript Society, the Authors' League of America, the Guild of Vocal Teachers, and the Musicians, No Name, Gamut, and MacDowell clubs of New York.{{Cite journal |last=Green |first=Miriam Stewart |date=January 1976 |title=Consider These Creators |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/43537970 |journal=American Music Teacher |volume=25 |issue=3 |pages=9–12 |jstor=43537970 |issn=0003-0112}} She owned a summer home in Lavallette, New Jersey.
Compositions
Below is a non-comprehensive list of Foster's compositions.{{Cite book|title=International Encyclopedia of Women Composers |last=Cohen|first= Aaron I.|date=1987|publisher=Books & Music (USA), Inc|isbn=0961748524|edition=2nd, revised and enlarged|location=New York|oclc=16714846}}
References
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Category:20th-century American educators
Category:20th-century American women educators
Category:20th-century American composers
Category:People from Leavenworth, Kansas