Nellie Strong Stevenson

Nellie Strong Stevenson (June 14, 1856 – July 9, 1930), born Ellen Strong, was an American pianist, music educator, and clubwoman.

Nellie Strong Stevenson
Nellie Strong Stevenson, from 1915 publication
Born
Ellen C. Strong

(1856-06-14)June 14, 1856
Rockford, Illinois
DiedJuly 9, 1930(1930-07-09) (aged 74)
Washington, D.C.
NationalityAmerican
OccupationPianist, music educator, clubwoman

Early life

Ellen C. Strong was born in Rockford, Illinois and raised in St. Louis, Missouri, the daughter of George P. Strong and Melinda P. Fales Strong. Her father was a lawyer and a judge. She trained as a pianist in St. Louis. She went to Europe for further studies in Leipzig and Berlin, and with Franz Liszt at a summer program in Weimar.[1][2]

Career

Strong taught and performed in St. Louis, New York, and Boston as a young woman. She was the founding president of the Missouri Music Teachers Association,[3] and spoke at the World's Music Congress, held at the World's Columbian Exposition in 1893. She chaired the Students Department of the National Federation of Music Clubs.[1] In that position, she wrote about topics of interest to student musicians;[4] she was also chair of the National Federation Contest for Young Artists.[5][6]

In 1917 she was based in San Diego, where she was head of the piano department at the Sloan School of Music[7][8] and played at the organ pavilion in Balboa Park.[9] By 1919 she was based in San Francisco, and wrote about music libraries in California in 1921.[10] She gave music appreciation lectures, accompanying herself on piano, into her last years.[11][12] She was a director of the California Music Teachers Association, and a member of the Western Women's Club and the Pacific Coast Women's Press Association.[13]

Personal life

Nellie Strong married lawyer John Chiles Houston Stevenson, the son of Union Army general John Dunlap Stevenson, in 1894.[1] She was widowed when Stevenson died in San Francisco in 1922,[14] and she died in 1930, aged 74 years, while visiting Washington, D.C.[13]

References
  1. Leonard, John W. (1914). Woman's Who's Who of America: A Biographical Dictionary of Contemporary Women of the United States and Canada, 1914-1915. American Commonwealth Company. pp. 781-782. Nellie Strong Stevenson.
  2. Saerchinger, César (1918). International Who's who in Music and Musical Gazetteer: A Contemporary Biographical Dictionary and a Record of the World's Musical Activity. Current Literature Publishing Company. pp. 617–618.
  3. "Missouri Music Teachers". St. Louis Globe-Democrat. June 27, 1896. p. 2. Retrieved December 12, 2019 – via Newspapers.com.
  4. Stevenson, Nellie Strong (September 1914). "Foreign Study for American Students". Musical Monitor and World. 4: 17.
  5. "The National Federation Contest for Young Artists". The Musical Monitor. 4: 415–416. June 1915.
  6. Stevenson, Nellie Strong (February 1915). "Conditions of the Biennial Contest at Los Angeles". Musical Monitor. 4: 203.
  7. "Untitled news item". Music News: 35. January 26, 1917.
  8. "San Diego". Music News. 9: 24. February 23, 1917.
  9. "Mrs. Stevenson to Appear in Concert Today". San Diego Union and Daily Bee. December 2, 1917. p. 5. Retrieved December 12, 2019 – via California Digital Newspaper Collection.
  10. Stevenson, Nellie Strong (January 1921). "A Visit to Some California Music Libraries". Musical Monitor. 10: 169–171.
  11. "Mrs. N. S. Stevenson". The San Francisco Examiner. May 20, 1923. p. 44. Retrieved December 12, 2019 – via Newspapers.com.
  12. "Mrs. Nellie Stevenson to Speak at Club". The San Francisco Examiner. March 11, 1929. p. 12. Retrieved December 12, 2019 – via Newspapers.com.
  13. "Musician, Club Leader of S. F. Dies in East". The San Francisco Examiner. July 13, 1930. p. 3. Retrieved December 12, 2019 – via Newspapers.com.
  14. "Obituary". The Cornell Alumni News. 1922. p. 356.
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