Jeanne Behrend

Jeanne Behrend (May 11, 1911 – March 20, 1988) was an American pianist, musicologist, music educator, and composer.

She made her debut with the Philadelphia Orchestra at age 11, and graduated from the Curtis Institute of Music in 1934 after studying under Josef Hofmann and Rosario Scalero. Behrend won Columbia University's Joseph H. Bearns Prize in 1936. Following her 1937 Carnegie Hall debut, she championed American composers and explored musical traditions across the Western Hemisphere.

Sponsored by composer Heitor Villa-Lobos, she conducted lecture and concert tours across South America from 1945-46, for which she earned Brazil's National Order of the Southern Cross. As a musicologist and archival editor, Behrend published Louis Moreau Gottschalk's autobiography, Notes of a Pianist, in 1964. She taught at several institutions, including Juilliard, Temple University, and the Curtis Institute of Music.

Early life Jeanne Behrend was an American Jewish pianist and composer. She was born May 11, 1911, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She graduated from the Curtis Institute of Music in 1934, where she studied piano with Josef Hofmann and composition with Rosario Scalero. Becoming aware of the lack of opportunity for American composers, Behrend became a champion of American music, focusing part of her performances on showcasing American works, and concentrated on her career as a performer. She married her second husband, Americana book dealer George S. McManus, in 1949; he died in 1967.

Orchestral and vocal From Dawn to Dusk (1939) – An orchestral suite that won the Joseph H. Bearns Prize from Columbia University. Festival Fanfare: Prelude to the National Anthem (1959) – Composed for large ensemble brass and percussion. Lazarus – A dramatic cantata scored for mixed chorus and orchestra. Dance into Spring – An uptempo programmatic piano work frequently used in her concert recitals. A Child's Day – A multi-movement pedagogical piano suite designed for intermediate-level instruction.

Behrend edited Louis Moreau Gottschalk's Notes of a Pianist (New York, 1964) and also selections of his music.