Beach, Amy

2010/06/2

Amy Beach (1867–1944), United States 

Composer and pianist who achieved great success in both the U.S. and Europe. She was the first American woman to succeed as a composer of large-scale art music and is also considered the greatest. She was a musical prodigy; at age one, she could sing 40 songs, and she composed her first piano piece at age four and performed on the piano for the first time at age seven.

She made her very successful professional debut in 1883. Her first published piece came out the same year: The Rainy Day, a musical setting of a poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. She was a highly disciplined composer who could write large-scale works in just a few days.

Link: Wikipedia