Background
Fulton was born in Oklahoma City, where she began studying piano at age nine, in 1918.
Fulton was born in Oklahoma City, where she began studying piano at age nine, in 1918.
She attended the Curtis Institute of Music and held fellowships at The Juilliard School, graduating with honors in 1935. While at Curtis, Fulton met Mack Harrell who had studied violin at Oklahoma City University and was continuing violin studies at Curtis.
Mack Harrell flourished as a concert and operatic baritone, notably with the Metropolitan Opera, and Fulton continued to perform and teach. Fulton had performed with many major groups around the world and had given concerts at The Town Hall (debut — 4 February 1953) and Carnegie Hall in New York City, and Jordan Hall in Boston (1936–1937). As a violin teacher, Fulton taught privately in Boston (from 1936 to 1937), New York, and Dallas.
She had taught at the University of North Texas College of Music, beginning in 1958, and became an artist in residence there in 1960.
Fulton, while on the faculty at North Texas, died in Dallas, Texas, from injuries six days after a two-vehicle crash while traveling from Denton to Fort Worth with pianist Jean Mainous to perform a recital. The work was performed twice in November 1962 by the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, Donald Johanos conducting.
Modernist composer Samuel Adler, a member of the composition faculty at North Texas in 1962, dedicated a his 1962 composition, Elegy for Strings, to Mistress Marjorie Fulton Harrell.