Merle Montgomeryaus modern

Merle Montgomery (* 15 May 1904 in Davidson/Oklahoma; † 25 August 1986 in Chantilly) was an American composer, pianist and music teacher.

Life

Montgomery studied piano at the University of Oklahoma. From 1929 to 1933 she attended summer courses at the American Conservatory in Fontainebleau and took private lessons with Nadia Boulanger and Isidore Philipp. She first gave private lessons in Oklahoma and taught piano and music theory at Southwestern Oklahoma College in Weatherford from 1934 to 1939. In 1937 she received a master’s degree in music theory from the Eastman School of Music, where she taught piano and theory from 1943 to 1945. In 1948, she received her doctorate from the Eastman School with a dissertation on Vincent d’Indy.

From 1945, Montgomery taught composition according to the Schillinger system and worked for the music publisher Carl Fischer in New York. From 1956 to 1966, she worked for the music department of Oxford University Press and taught piano and music theory at the Turtle Bay Music School and the Westchester Conservatory. From 1958 to 1960 she was president of the New York Federation of Music Clubs. During this time she published her Music Theory Papers and Music Composition Papers with Fischer. Between 1963 and 1972, she edited two volumes of the Sribner Music Library.

From 1967 to 1971, Montgomery was Coordinator of Symphonic Repertoire and Vice President of Public Relations at Fischer. In 1971 she was a founding member and board member of the New York Philomusica Chamber Ensemble, and from 1971 to 1975 she was president of the National Federation of Music Clubs. Between 1975 and 1979 she was President of the National Music Council, and from 1977 Vice President of the Musicians Club of New York. In 1976 she was inducted into the Oklahoma Hall of Fame. In her final years, she was a representative of the National Federation of Music Clubs at the United Nations.

As a composer, Montgomery was best known for several collections of children’s songs. In the mid-1950s, she wrote and produced a series of short films under the title Let’s go to Musicland!

Source Wiki: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Merle_Montgomery