Background
Powell was born in Peru, Illinois. Her mother was Wilhelmina "Minnie" Bengelstraeter Powell, and her father was William Bramwell Powell.
Powell was born in Peru, Illinois. Her mother was Wilhelmina "Minnie" Bengelstraeter Powell, and her father was William Bramwell Powell.
In 1986, "s biographer Karen A. Shaffer founded the Maud Society for Music and Education to further knowledge of and her significant role in music both in the United States and abroad. West.B. authored numerous books such as The Normal Course of Reading and served as superintendent of Peru Elementary School District 124 from 1862 to 1870. She was also the niece of John Wesley, an American Civil War hero and famed explorer of the Grand Canyon.
Her uncle made his first scientific exploration of the Colorado River in 1869 when Maud was two years old.
Around the age of 7, she began violin and piano lessons in Aurora, Illinois located in Kane County, Illinois, a western suburb of Chicago, Illinois. She was soon recognized as a prodigy and at age 9 began four years of commuting to Chicago for piano study with Agnes Ingersoll and violin study with William Lewis.
There she studied under Henry Schradieck at the Leipzig Conservatoire, Charles Dancla at the Paris Conservatoire (after placing first in the entrance exam), and Joseph Joachim at the Berlin Hochschule, among others In 1885 she played Bruch"s G minor concerto in her debut with the Berlin Philharmonic under Joachim"s baton, and again with the New York Philharmonic under Theodore Thomas after she returned to America.
She was premiered violin concertos by Tchaikovsky and Sibelius in America and premiered the Dvorak violin concerto in New York under the supervision of Dvorak himself. was a powerful advocate for music by Americans, woman and black composers, including the Afro-English composer Samuel Coleridge-Taylor.
On November 27, 1919 in Saint Louis, Missouri, she collapsed on stage of a heart attack. On January 8, 1920 she died of another heart attack in Uniontown, Pennsylvania while on tour. was the first instrumentalist to record for the Celebrity Artist Series of the Victor Talking Machine Company, starting in 1904 until 1919. With these recordings she set an enduring standard violin performance.
In 2007, American violinist Rachel Barton Pine released a Civil Defense of music transcribed by, commissioned by or dedicated to Maud.
In 2009, Maud Favorites, a 4-volume set of "s transcriptions and works commissioned by her or dedicated to her was published by the Maud Society for Music and Education. The music was compiled by Karen A. Shaffer who wrote the extensive historical introduction and annotations while Rachel Barton Pine served as the music editors
The award was accepted on behalf of by biographer Karen A. Shaffer and Rachel Barton Pine.