Louise Lincoln Kerr

Louise Lincoln Kerr (April 24, 1892 – December 10, 1977) was an American musician, composer, and philanthropist from Cleveland, Ohio. She wrote more than 100 music compositions, including fifteen symphonic tone poems, twenty works for chamber or string orchestra, a violin concerto, five ballets and incidental music, numerous piano pieces, and about forty pieces of chamber music. She was known as "The Grand Lady of Music" for her patronage of the arts. Louise Kerr helped to co-found and developed The Phoenix Symphony, The Phoenix Chamber Music Society (1960), The Scottsdale Center for the Arts, The National Society of Arts and Letters (1944) (in Phoenix, Arizona), Monday Morning Musicals, The Bach and Madrigal Society (1958) (now the Phoenix Chorale), Young Audiences, The Musicians Club, and the Phoenix Cello Society (now the Arizona Cello Society). Kerr was also a benefactor to the Herberger School of Music at Arizona State University. She was inducted into the Arizona Women's Hall of Fame on October 21, 2004 and was nominated by conductor and musicologist Carolyn Waters Broe.

Biography

Early life Louise Lincoln was born in Cleveland, Ohio, on April 24, 1892. Her father, John C. Lincoln, was a notable engineer who founded Lincoln Electric. While at Barnard, she took private violin lessons with Dutch soloist Christiaan Timmner at the Institute of Musical Art, which would later become part of the Juilliard School of Music. She left New York around 1913 due to the death of her mother and to join the Cleveland Municipal Orchestra under the direction of Christiaan Timmner. and also at Phoenix in June 2009. The same orchestra is known for arranging the European premiere of Kerr's Enchanted Mesa in Vienna, Austria on June 27, 2009 for the Haydn Festival and have performed several of her chamber orchestra and chamber music pieces for the Arizona Centennial in 2012. The Four Seasons String Quartet performed her String Quartet in A Major in 2001 at ASU and several other places.

Her ballet Tableau Vivant was commissioned for the installation of John Waddell's twelve statues in front of Phoenix Symphony Hall and premiered by the Phoenix Symphony in 1975. Very few of Kerr's works have been officially edited or published publicly.

Legacy Louise Lincoln Kerr died at her ranch in Cottonwood, Arizona, on December 10, 1977, of heart failure, aged 85. She received a gold medal for distinguished contribution to the arts from the National Society of the Arts and Letters. Shortly before her death, Kerr was awarded an honorary Doctorate from ASU; however, she was unable to receive this award in person. Throughout her career, Kerr composed more than 100 works. She was posthumously inducted into the Arizona Women's Hall of Fame on October 21, 2004. Her former home and studio in Scottsdale was recognized with a listing on the National Register of Historic Places on April 14, 2010. Concerts are still being performed at this venue. This is now an Arizona State and National Heritage site.

Compositional style Louise Lincoln's compositional style has been determined as being tonal and the same is also found to be influenced by romantic and classical genre. Her music has been categorized to be typically showing Southwest Impressionism as her creations were found to be heavily influenced by the local peculiarity of American Southwest. Such characterization had been furthered by the creations of influences of impressionist painters from California and Arizona during her stay for the years 1940s. It is also a fact that she and her elder daughter Tammara, both were painters. Almost all of her creations are officially unpublished. Also, not all of her creations could be dated and premiere dates and names of compositions were also found lost after her death. Though some has carried out the analysis of her music based on the availability, a full picture of ascertaining the same had not been possible due to the fact that Reel to Reel recordings of most of the premiere dates of her creations had been lost. Five Character Pieces for Viola and Piano, edited by Carolyn Waters Broe, is the first of Kerr's published works.

Work list + Type of work Details (premiere dates)

Arizona Pageant Children's March Comanche Song Country Fiddler Enchanted Mesa for Orchestra (1948) Enchanted Mesa (for Soprano and Orchestra) Ileana Indian Lullaby (1953/1954) Indian Round Dance (1953) Profiles of Arizona (1968) Senor Alcalde Mayor Sicilienne Spanish Town Suite for Orchestra (1952) Suite -Rigaudon