Amy Marcy Beach

Amy Marcy Cheney Beach (September 5, 1867 – December 27, 1944) was an American composer and pianist. She was the first successful American female composer of large-scale art music. As a pianist, she made an acclaimed 3-year concert tour of Europe. Amy was born in Henniker, New Hampshire. In 1875, the Cheney family moved to Chelsea, a suburb just across the Mystic River from Boston.

Amy gave her first iBoston recital in 1883, playing Chopin's Rondo in E-flat. Her symphonic debut was as piano soloist in Moscheles's piano concerto No. 3 in G minor with the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Her performance received large acclaim from both critics and other musical circles. Following her debut in Boston, the next two years of her career included performances in Chickering Hall, as well as starring in the last performance of the Boston Symphony's 1884–85 season. Following her marriage in 1885 to Dr. Henry Harris Aubrey Beach, a Boston surgeon 24 years older than she, her name, as on concert programs and published compositions, became "Mrs. H. H. A. Beach." She agreed to limit performances to two public recitals a year, with profits donated to charity. Following her husband's wishes, she devoted herself more to composition. Her first major success was the Mass in E-flat major, which was performed in 1892 by the Handel and Haydn Society orchestra, founded in 1815. The well-received performance of the Mass moved Beach into the rank of America's foremost composers. The Mass was the first piece composed by a woman that was performed by the Society, viewed by some as the most conservative music organization in the country.

After her husband died in 1910, Beach toured Europe for three years as a pianist, playing her own compositions. She was determined to establish a reputation there as both a performer and a composer. "The fine quality and traditional correctness of her music caused astonishment. She returned to America in 1914, where she spent time at the MacDowell Colony in Peterborough, New Hampshire. In 1915, she wrote Music’s Ten Commandments as Given for Young Composers, which expressed many of her self-teaching principles. Beach later moved to New York, where she became the virtual composer-in-residence at St. Bartholomew's Episcopal Church, New York. She used her status as the top female American composer to further the careers of young musicians. While she had agreed not to give private music lessons while married, Beach was able to work as a music educator during the early 20th century. She worked to coach and give feedback to various young composers, musicians, and students. Given her status and advocacy for music education, she was in high demand as a speaker and performer for various educational institutions and clubs, such as the University of New Hampshire, where she received an honorary master's degree in 1928. She also worked to create "Beach Clubs," which helped teach and educate children in music. She served as leader of some organizations focused on music education and women, including the Society of American Women Composers as its first president. Heart disease led to Beach's retirement in 1940.