Laura Sedgwick Collins

Laura Sedgwick Collins ( – April 20, 1927) was an American musician, composer, lyricist, and actress. Born in Poughkeepsie, she was active as a music educator and composer in New York. While she composed a wide range of works, she was most productive in creating music for the stage and as a composer of art songs. She is remembered for being the first American woman to study music composition with Antonín Dvořák. and Emily L. Collins, Laura Collins was born in Poughkeepsie, New York. Her mother was a painter and her father was a civil servant. Her initial music studies were with her mother, followed by studies under W. H. B. Matthews, Henry Wolfgang Amadeus Beale, Oscar Coon, and Carl Bergstein. She belonged to the Music Teachers National Association, and was a prolific writer of songs for children for use in music education. an organization credited as providing opportunities for women composers at a time when opportunities were rarely available elsewhere.

Laura Sedgwick Collins died on April 20, 1927, aged 68, at the Knickerbocker Hospital in Manhattan.

Resurgence of her music In the early 1990s, there was a brief resurgence of interest in Collins's music in the New York region. In 1993, there were several centennial celebration concerts given in New York, honoring Dvořák's arrival in the city with programs featuring compositions created by Dvořák's students. Earlier that same year, tenor William Brown sang songs by Collins at the Bard Music Festival. Her music was also performed at the 1993 Caramoor Summer Music Festival in the concert "Dvořák and the Folk Connection".

Partial list of works Songs "A Foolish Little Maiden" (1887)

Stage works Electra, music for the play (1889), staged at Harvard University and the Hollis Street Theatre The Message of History (1910), play and music by Collins; staged at Church of the Divine Paternity Jonathan, a tragedy by Thomas Ewing Jr., music by Collins Les Précieuses ridicules, play by Molière; music composed by Collins for the first production of the play mounted in England The Lotus Pool play by Edwalyn De Kay; music composed by Collins Pierrot, music for the play by Alfred Thompson Pygmalion and Galatea, play by W. S. Gilbert; music composed by Collins for New York production Sarah Tarbox, M. A., play by Charles Barnard, music by Collins The Winter's Tale, play by William Shakespeare; music composed by Collins for a staging by David Belasco given at the Lyceum Theatre, Park Avenue South

Marches "The Two Republics" (1886) "Graduates March" (1906, composed for New York City Public Schools commencement)