Background
He was born in Bridgeport, Connecticut. He studied piano in New York with William Mason (son of Lowell Mason and student of Franz Liszt and Ignaz Moscheles).
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Samuel Sanford
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He went to Paris and studied with Alfred Jaëll, Louis Plaidy (teacher of Hans von Bülow and many others), Théodore Ritter (another student of Liszt), and Édouard Batiste. In 1869, he became acquainted with Anton Rubinstein, and later studied with him.
Career
He travelled with Rubinstein during his first American tour in 1872-1873. Ignacy January Paderewski changed his execution of octave playing after hearing Sanford play, and once described Sanford as the most musically gifted person he ever knew. Sanford brought Sir Edward Elgar"s music to American attention through the brothers Walter and Frank Damrosch and Theodore Thomas.
He was instrumental in having Elgar awarded an honorary doctorate in music from Yale University in 1905.
At the conferral ceremony on 28 June, Elgar"s Pomp and Circumstance March Number. 1 was played, instituting the tradition of playing noble processional music at graduation ceremonies.
Later that year, Elgar returned the compliment by dedicating his Introduction and Allegro to Sanford. Sanford joined the Yale Music Faculty as Professor of Applied Music in 1894, along with Horatio Parker as Professor of Theory.
During the sixteen years he worked at Yale, he refused to be paid any salary as he was independently wealthy.
He died at home on 6 January 1910 after a long illness. Recipients have included:
1975: Doriot Anthony Dwyer
1983: Louis Krasner
1983: Maureen Forrester
1991: Richard F. French
1997: Dorothy DeLay
1999: Keith Wilson
2000: Her Majesty King Bhumibol Adulyadej of Thailand
2002: Lili Chookasian
2003: Andrew Litton
2005: Robert Blocker
2005: Richard Stoltzman
2010: Vivian Perlis
2013: Willie Ruff
Emanuel Ax, Pierre Boulez, Aaron Copland, Richard Goode, Marilyn Horne, Sherrill Milnes, Eugene Ormandy, Mstislav Rostropovich, Robert Shaw, Sir Georg Solti, Randall Thompson, and Virgil Thomson.
Membership
In 1972 Yale University instituted the Samuel Simons (usually referred to as the ), to honour celebrated concert artists and distinguished members of the music profession.
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Born
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Died
January 6, 1910 (aged 60) -
Nationality
United States