Stell Andersen

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Cora Stell Andersen (1897–1989), also known as Cora Andersen, was an international concert pianist who toured during the 1920s with Silvio Scionti performing piano duos. In the 1930s and 1940s, she toured as a solo pianist and was the only American soloist invited to perform at the 1937 Paris Exposition.

Silvio Vittore Alberto Scionti was an Italian-born American pianist and teacher. Born in Acireale, Sicily, he trained at the Royal Conservatory in Naples. He eventually settled in the United States, teaching at the American Conservatory of Music, the Chicago Musical College, and North Texas State College from 1942 to 1953, and privately in the Dallas area. He performed as a soloist numerous times with the Chicago and Minneapolis orchestras, and frequently gave recitals. In the 1920s, he toured the United States performing piano duos with former student Stell Andersen. After 1935, he and his wife Isabel toured Europe, Mexico, and the United States. He also recorded a handful of piano rolls.

Piano duet musical work for two pianists, sometimes with accompanying instruments

According to the Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, there are two kinds of piano duet: "those for two players at one instrument, and those in which each of the two pianists has an instrument to him- or herself." In American usage the former is often referred to as "piano four hands". Grove notes that the one-piano duet has the larger repertory, but has come to be regarded as a modest, domestic form of music-making by comparison with "the more glamorous two-piano duet". The latter is more often referred to as a piano duo.

Exposition Internationale des Arts et Techniques dans la Vie Moderne exhibition held in Paris in 1937

The Exposition Internationale des Arts et Techniques dans la Vie Moderne was held from 25 May to 25 November 1937 in Paris, France. Both the Palais de Chaillot, housing the Musée de l'Homme, and the Palais de Tokyo, which houses the Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, were created for this exhibition that was officially sanctioned by the Bureau International des Expositions.

Contents

Music career

Cora Stell Andersen was born in Linn Grove, Iowa, and was of Norwegian descent. [1] [2] She was known as Cora Andersen until 1918, when she began using her middle name instead. [1]

Linn Grove, Iowa City in Iowa, United States

Linn Grove is a city in Buena Vista County, Iowa, United States. The population was 154 at the 2010 census. The nearby Chan-Ya-Ta Site contains the remains of a 1000-year-old prehistoric village, and is on the National Register of Historic Places.

She began to study the piano early and eventually went to Chicago to study with Silvio Scionti at the American Conservatory of Music in Chicago. After graduating in 1916, she went to New York for further study with Josef Lhévinne [1] and Isidor Philipp. [3]

The American Conservatory of Music (ACM) was a major American school of music founded in Chicago in 1886 by John James Hattstaedt (1851–1931). The conservatory was incorporated as an Illinois non-profit corporation. It developed the Conservatory Symphony Orchestra and had numerous student recitals. The oldest private degree-granting music school in the Midwest, it was located in Chicago until 1991.

Josef Lhévinne pianist


Josef Lhévinne was a Russian pianist and piano teacher. Lhévinne wrote a short book in 1924 that is considered a classic: Basic Principles in Pianoforte Playing. Asked how to say his name, he told The Literary Digest it was lay-VEEN.

Isidor Philipp French musician

Isidor Edmond Philipp was a French pianist, composer, and pedagogue of Jewish Hungarian descent. He was born in Budapest and died in Paris.

Shortly thereafter, Andersen went on a concert tour with Scionti playing music for two pianos. [4] Praised by critics for their imaginative and polished playing, they continued to tour together through the 1920s. [1] Though they then stopped playing together regularly, they made occasional appearances together into the early 1950s. [1]

In 1922, Andersen made her solo debut in New York at Carnegie Hall. She toured the United States and Europe throughout the 1930s and 1940s, playing in France, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Sweden, Denmark, Switzerland, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, and Belgium. [3] [4] In 1937, she was the only American soloist who was invited to perform at the Paris Exposition. [4] She went on to perform for the Duke and Duchess of Windsor. [4]

Carnegie Hall concert hall in New York City

Carnegie Hall is a concert venue in Midtown Manhattan in New York City, United States, located at 881 Seventh Avenue, occupying the east side of Seventh Avenue between West 56th Street and West 57th Street, two blocks south of Central Park.

Duke of Windsor

The Duke of Windsor was a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. It was created on 8 March 1937, for former King Edward VIII, following his abdication on 11 December 1936. The dukedom takes its name from the town where Windsor Castle, a residence of English monarchs since the time of Henry I, following the Norman Conquest, is situated. Windsor has been the house name of the royal family since 1917.

Wallis Simpson wife of Edward VIII of the United Kingdom

Wallis Simpson, later known as the Duchess of Windsor, was an American socialite whose intended marriage to the British king Edward VIII caused a constitutional crisis that led to Edward's abdication.

In 1939, she became the first musician invited to perform on a newly installed piano in the East Room of the White House. [4]

Andersen's repertoire was mostly classical and Romantic, including such composers as Mozart, Beethoven, Chopin, Brahms, Schumann, Liszt, Grieg, Scriabin, Rachmaninoff, Saint-Saens, and Ives. [3] [5] [6] In 1939, she premiered composer Darius Milhaud's Fantaisie pastorale for piano and orchestra, Op. 188 with Milhaud conducting. [6] In 1952, she would record this piece and several others with conductor Jonathan Sternberg. [6] Some were released immediately on a disc by Oceanic, while others were not released for another 30 years. [6]

Andersen was known for bringing dignity and flawless execution to her playing, [1] [2] but some critics found her style lacking in excitement and her tempi too free. [1]

She continued touring into the 1960s and died in 1989. [1]

Personal life

Andersen's companion for many years was the author Esther Morgan McCullough, daughter of former Vermont governor John G. McCullough. [1]

In 1936, Andersen saw an exhibition of paintings by Harriet Blackstone at the Dudensing Gallery in New York and commissioned Blackstone to paint her portrait. [7]

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References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Guerry, Jack. Silvio Scionti: Remembering a Master Pianist and Teacher. University of North Texas Press,
  2. 1 2 "Stell Andersen in Recital". The Music News, p. 28.
  3. 1 2 3 "Stell Anderson [sic] and Lois Wann to Appear in Academy Recitals". The Brooklyn Eagle, Trend section, Jan 26, 1941, p. 8.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 Williams, Jesse. Pioneering the Future, Women of Achievement Born in 19th Century Mississippi. Tishomingo County Courthouse Archives and History Museum, 2004.
  5. ↑ Moore, Edward. "Some Pleasing Piano Playing Is Exhibited by Stell Andersen". Chicago Daily Tribune, Jan. 20, 1928, p. 23.
  6. 1 2 3 4 Tintner, Tanya. "An American in Vienna". The Record Collector (Winter 2012), p. 39.
  7. ↑ A Mystical Vision: The Art of Harriet Blackstone 1864–1939. Vermont: Bennington Museum, 1984.
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