Background
Virginia Raad was born on August 13, 1925, in Salem, West Virginia, United States. The daughter of Joseph M. and Martha (Joseph) Raad.
Virginia Raad was born on August 13, 1925, in Salem, West Virginia, United States. The daughter of Joseph M. and Martha (Joseph) Raad.
Virginia Raad received her Bachelor of Arts in Art History from Wellesley College in 1947. She was a special student of New England Conservatory of Music in 1948. Between 1949 and 1955 Raad was a student of Berthe Bert, Jeanne Blancard, Alfred Cortot, and Jacques Chailley. She also received a diploma of Ecole Normale de Musique, Paris, and a Doctor of Philosophy with honors from the University of Paris in 1955.
Raad was an artist in residence at Salem College, West Virginia, from 1957 to 1970. Since 1960 she was an independent concert pianist.
Since 1971 Raad was a musician in residence at community colleges of North Carolina Arts Council.
Raad gave concerts, lectures and master classes throughout the United States and abroad, appearing frequently at major colleges, universities and preparatory schools. She published regularly in professional journals. Her last book was on the composer Claude Debussy. She recorded Debussy’s work for EDUCO.
Virginia Raad was also a contributor to journals, including Piano Guild Notes, American Music Teacher, Clavier, and Musical Courier. She died on January 27, 2018 in Salem, West Virginia, United States.
Quotations: “There is a need for diversely trained musicians in our society. As a pianist and musicologist, I endeavor to encourage young people in the schools where I perform.”
Raad was a member of the International Musicological Society, American Musicological Society, College Music Society, American Society for Aesthetics, American College of Musicians, Societe Francaise de Musicologie, Alpha Delta Kappa.
Between 1978 and 1984, then since 1992 she was a panelist and grant reviewer of the National Endowment of the Humanities. In 1978 Virginia Raad was a member of the committee of the National Endowment of Arts.
Raad was also an adjudicator, musicology program chair of Music Teachers National Association from 1983 to 1987.