Frances McCollin

Frances McCollin (October 24, 1892 – February 25, 1960) was an American composer and musician, who was blind from early childhood. She was the first woman to win the Clemson Prize from the American Guild of Organists. In 1951, she was named a Distinguished Daughter of Pennsylvania.

Early life and education Frances McCollin was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1892, the daughter of and Alice Graham Lanigan McCollin. Her father, a lawyer, had studied musical composition in college, and he wrote and performed music as a side interest throughout his life. He was one of the founders of the Manuscript Music Society of Philadelphia. and the mother of Edward Arnett.

When Frances McCollin was five years old, she became blind, probably from congenital glaucoma. Her parents and extended family took an energetic approach to her education at home, focused on music. When she started to compose in girlhood, her father was her first teacher and transcriber. As a child, she described sensations consistent with synaesthesia and perfect pitch. the organist at St. Stephen's Church in Philadelphia, and with William Wallace Gilchrist and H. Alexander Matthews at the Pennsylvania Institute for Instruction of the Blind.

Career In her lifetime, McCollin's works were performed frequently by professional and amateur vocal ensembles, and by orchestras including the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Warsaw Philharmonic, the Vancouver Symphony, and others. She met Marian Anderson, Igor Stravinsky, Amy Beach, and other musicians and composers, usually in connection with her mother's work with the Philadelphia Orchestra. Fabien Sevitzky, Eugene Ormandy, and Leopold Stokowski took particular interest in her compositions.

Among the honors McCollin won a first prize from the Manuscript Music Society of Philadelphia in 1916, and the Philadelphia Matinee Musical Club's annual prize in 1918. Also in 1918, she became the first woman to win the Clemson Prize from the American Guild of Organists, and the Kimball Company Prize from the Chicago Madrigal Club. In 1931 her composition "Spring in Heaven" won the Federation Prize from the National Federation of Music Clubs. In 1951, she was named a Distinguished Daughter of Pennsylvania.

She gave popular weekly lectures about the Philadelphia Orchestra programs, in which she focused on explaining modern compositions. She also hosted a weekly radio show for children, the "Aunt Frances Music Hour." She conducted a girls' choir at the School for the Blind in West Philadelphia, and the Girls' Glee Club at Swarthmore College for one year (1923-1924).

Personal life McCollin did earn some money from teaching, lecturing, and publishing royalties, but not enough to be financially independent. She never matured socially and intellectually; she was profoundly dependent on her family both financially and professionally. Throughout her life, she benefitted from transcription help from her family and from other local musicians including Vincent Persichetti, Jeanne Behrend, and Fabien Sevitzky (who would go on to program her works when he conducted the Indianapolis Symphony).

McCollin was in poor health in her last years, and lived with her sister Kitty (who had married a doctor, John Hancock Arnett).

Selected works Among her compositions include:

Now All the Woods Are Sleeping All Glory, Laud and Honor Pavane Spring in Heaven (1931) How Firm a Foundation, a chorale cantata based on the tune St. Denio (1943) Festival Chorus (Ring Out Wild Bells) O Robin, Little Robin, for SSA chorus and piano arrangement also exists for SSA and piano The Singing Leaves, setting of James Russell Lowell poem for women's chorus, soloists, and piano, 1918 prize winner from the Philadelphia Matinee Musical Club.