Background

William was born on January 31, 1854 in Lyons, New York, United States, the eldest of seven children of the Rev. Lyman Hinsdale and Mary (Balis) Sherwood. On his father's side he was descended from Thomas Sherwood, who emigrated from London to Ipswich, Massachussets, in 1634, and settled in Fairfax, Connecticut, and on his mother's side from John Balis, a farmer with a large grant of land between Cairo and Catskill, New York. Lyman Sherwood was a man of culture, an accomplished linguist, an excellent pianist and organist. He supported his family by teaching music, being so successful that he founded Lyons Musical Academy in 1854, the second music school founded in America.

William Sherwood showed musical talent at the age of four.

Education

He received his first training from his aunt who was a teacher in the Academy. At the age of seven he came under the careful training of his father, with whom he studied for ten years, taking a full course in piano, harmony, and composition. He also acquired a literary education under his father, especially in French and German.

For a short time he studied piano with Edward Heimburger in Rochester, New York, and Jan N. Pychowski in New York City, but in 1871 he began studying with William Mason, who was conducting a normal institute at Binghamton, New York. In the autumn of that year, upon Mason's advice, he went to Germany, where he remained five years, at first studying piano with Kullak and theory with Weitzmann in Berlin.

He studied with Deppe for a time and then went to Stuttgart, where he studied organ with Scotson Clark and composition with Doppler, but he returned to Kullak and Weitzmann. In 1875 he went to Weimar to study with Liszt, who was enthusiastic over the abilities of the young artist.

Career

Between the ages of nine and eleven Sherwood frequently appeared in concert in New York, Pennsylvania, and Canada. From 1866 to 1871 he taught in the Academy. He was one of the students chosen to play at the annual Kullak concert at the Singakademie, at which he gave a brilliant performance of the Chopin fantasia in F.

The next season he played the Beethoven E flat concerto with an orchestra conducted by Richard Wüerst before an audience of four thousand, and repeated this concerto several times that season in Berlin.

Sherwood had studied the Grieg concerto with Liszt and his performance of it with the philharmonic orchestra in Hamburg received an ovation. This success opened the door for performances with other great orchestras of Germany. While in Berlin he was organist of the English Chapel and while in Stuttgart, of the English Church.

Sherwood returned to America in 1876 and taught for a few years in the New England Conservatory, Boston, and then moved to New York. From 1889 until his death he lived in Chicago, being connected for the first eight years with the Chicago Conservatory of Music.

He resigned in 1897 and established the Sherwood Music School, and devoted himself wholly to teaching and giving concerts. Besides making several tours with the Theodore Thomas and the symphony orchestra of New York he played with all the important American orchestras.

He had a large following as a teacher, especially through his summer courses at Chautauqua, New York, where for twenty-two years, from 1889 till his death, he was head of the piano department.

He died in Chicago.

Achievements

• William Hall Sherwood founded the Sherwood Music School. He was one of the first Americans to play with the great European orchestras, but in spite of his great success abroad, was always far more interested in the appreciation of his own countrymen. He was the first to play the Grieg concerto in America, and was the first soloist to appear with the Boston Symphony Orchestra under George Henschel.

Works

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• book

  • The Life of Rev. William James Hall, M. D.: Medical Missionary to the Slums of New York, Pioneer Missionary to Pyong Yang, Korea

    ( This work has been selected by scholars as being cultur...)

Personality

He possessed a flawless, brilliant technique, delicacy and refinement of expression, and thorough musicianship. He possessed a lovable nature, very affable, simple, and unpretentious.

Connections

His first wife, Mary Fay, of Williamsburg, New York, to whom he was married in 1874 while a student in Berlin, was also a gifted student of Kullak, and they often played together successfully. His second wife, Estelle F. Abrams, of Monongahela, to whom he was married in 1887, was his student in Boston. He had three daughters by the first marriage, and two by the second.

Father:

Lyman Hinsdale Sherwood

Mother:

Mary (Balis) Sherwood

Spouse:

Mary Fay

Spouse:

Estelle F. Abrams

child:

Ruth Sherwood

child:

Ethellinda Anderson

ancestor:

John Balis

ancestor:

Thomas Sherwood

coworker:

Richard Wüerst

teacher:

Jan N. Pychowski

teacher:

Scotson Clark

teacher:

Franz Liszt

teacher:

William Mason