Maud Powell: Fox Valley Arts Hall of Fame ~ Celebrating Lives of Achievement.

Pioneer Heritage. Maud Powell was born on August 22, 1867, in Peru, Illinois, on the western frontier where her grandparents had been Methodist missionaries before the Civil War. Her father, William Bramwell Powell, was an innovative educator; superintendent of the Peru, then East Aurora Illinois, public schools and finally of Washington D.C. schools. Her mother, Minnie Paul Powell, was an amateur musician and composer whose gender precluded a career in music. She and Maud's aunts were active in the women's suffrage movement. Her uncle, John Wesley Powell, Civil War hero and explorer of the Grand Canyon, organized the scientific study of the western lands and the native Indians. He became the powerful director of the U.S. Geological Survey and Bureau of Ethnology and founder of the National Geographic Society

Maud moved to Aurora with her parents at the age of three and lived at 16 N. West Street. The home still stands. She attended Center School, now the site of the School District 131 headquarters. Her father's progressive thinking about education included the theory that children learn best when they are treated kindly and exposed to as much as possible, an this approach seemed to work with Maud as well as her younger brother, Billy. She began violin lessons at the age of 7 with Professor G.W. Fickensher who often walked Maud home from school on lesson days. By the time she was nine, Maud began violin studies with William Lewis in Chicago, who laid the foundation for her solid technique, her impeccable musical taste and wide sympathies and to whom she said she "owed the most.” She would take the train to Chicago every Saturday, traveling alone to save the train fare.

In Aurora, Maud grew up as a normal little girl, although music gave direction to her life. For instance, she would roll a hoop (a favorite children's game) with her left hand, in order not to wrongly develop her right hand, so important as her bow hand. She was a friendly and inquisitive child and once amazed and amused some visitors by appearing on the roof of the neighbor's house, where she was visiting with the owner as he performed repairs.

Maud became a celebrity in Aurora and performed frequently with local musical groups including Stein's Orchestra.

Soon the time came for Maud to pursue her art at the highest level, which meant, in the 19th century, with the great teachers of Europe. The citizens of Aurora staged a grand farewell concert at the Coulter Opera House in which Maud performed the “Adagio” and “Finale” to Ferdinand David's Concerto No.4 with Stein's Orchestra. With the cheers of friends and neighbors ringing in her ears and a donation of money from the concert, Maud, with her mother and brother, departed for the next era of her career, leaving Bram Powell behind to continue his work from rented rooms, having sold their house to raise money for Maud's studies. She completed her studies with Henry Schradieck in Leipzig, Charles Dancia in Paris, and Joseph Joachim in Berlin. She made her New York debut at the age of 18, performing the Bruch G minor violin concerto with America's foremost conductor, Theodore Thomas, and the New York Philharmonic on November 14, 1885.

From 1885 forward, Theodore Thomas' "musical grandchild" made it her mission to cultivate a higher and more widespread appreciation for her art by bringing the best in classical music to Americans in remote areas as well as the large cultural centers. Maud pioneered the violin recital as she blazed new concert circuits throughout the country, braving the primitive touring conditions in the Far West to reach people who had never heard a concert before. She played concertos and sonatas in recital and complex chamber music with her trio (1908-09) and quartet (1894-95) to audiences widely varying in sophistication. Through her innovative recital programming, and her own program notes and music journal articles she educated her audiences about the history of violin playing and composition and encouraged them to cultivate music on their own. She returned many times to play in Aurora, Chicago and Peru. She played special programs for children and advised young musicians aspiring to a career, including the violinist Louis Kaufman and violin teacher Christine Dethier. She even met with music club leaders to encourage the cultivation of music in each town. She performed for the benefit of hospitals and schools and for the soldiers during World War I. Her devotion to and enthusiasm for her art made her one of America's most revered and beloved musicians.

Maud boldly championed the works of American composers such as Amy Beach, Marion Bauer, Victor Herbert, Cecil Burleigh, Edwin Grasse, John Alden Carpenter, Henry Holden Huss, Henry Rowe Shelley, Arthur Foote, Charles Wakefield Cadman and Grace White. She made her own transcriptions of music for violin and piano and composed an original cadenza for the Brahms violin concerto.

Maud Powell introduced to the American public concertos by Tchaikovsky, Dvorak, Sibelius, Saint-Saens, Lalo, Coleridge-Taylor, Arensky, Aulin, Huss, Shelley, Conus, Bruch and Rimsky-Korsakov. She revived neglected works of the 18th century, including Mozart's Sinfonia Concertante for violin and viola, and even edited a Locatelli violin sonata for publication.

Maud transformed musical taste and set an enduring standard for violin performance as the first solo instrumentalist to record for the Victor Talking Machine Company's celebrity artist series (Red Seal label) in 1904. Her recordings were world-wide best sellers.

Maud chose to tour with young pianists of artistic promise, including the Americans Arthur Loesser and Francis Moore, the Dane Axel Skjerne and the Russian Waldemar Liachowsky, ensuring them critical recognition and opening the way for solo careers. She made the pianist an equal partner, whether on stage or in the recording studio, and programmed piano solos in her recitals.

When Maud Powell made her debut in 1885, appreciation for her art was in its infancy in America, with only five professional orchestras, no established concert circuits, and few professional managers. Solo engagements were difficult to obtain, doubly difficult for a female artist and an American since all orchestra players and conductors were male and usually German. In 1893, Theodore Thomas, America's foremost conductor chose Maud Powell to represent America's achievement in violin performance at the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago. She was the only woman violinist to solo with the Exposition orchestra.

During the Exposition, Maud presented a paper before the Women's Musical Congress on "Women and the Violin" in which she encouraged young women with the requisite talent, health and discipline to take up the violin seriously. As a soloist and one of the first women to lead her own professional string quartet and trio, her example inspired young girls to take up the violin and women of all ages to form music clubs and orchestras in towns of all sizes throughout the land.

Maud Powell had proved to the world that a woman could play the violin as well as a man and was hailed as America's "one great master of the violin,” when her life of achievement ended--the same year that the Ninteenth Amendment granting national suffrage to women was ratified.

Maud Powell set an enduring standard for virtuosity and musicianship. Her art represented a synthesis of the major European schools transfused with the American spirit. Known for her immense repertoire, she was one of the first to play works from Corelli to Sibeluis with masterly breadth of style, absolute technical command and deep interpretive insight. With her American premieres of the Tchaikovsky, Dvorak and Sibelius violin concertos, she advanced the technique of the instrument into the modern age. Maud Powell toured Europe, North America, and South Africa to wide acclaim, apprearing with the great orchestras of her time under such conductors as Joachim, Saint-Saens, Mahler, Nikisch, Thomas, Safonov, Damrosch, Seidl, Richter, Wood, Herbert, and Stokowski. Upon her death on January 8, 1920, the New York Symphony paid tribute to this "supreme and unforgettable artist": "She was not only America's greatmaster of the violin, but a woman of lofty purpose and noble achievement, whose life and art brought to countless thousands inspiration for the good and the beautiful."