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Maud Powell was an American violinist, writer, and arranger born on August 22, 1867 (Brahms was 34 years old.) She is remembered for having been a concert violinist at a time when women violinists – even among orchestral players - were a rarity. Her career was spent almost exclusively in the U.S. Her first violin studies began when she was seven. At age 9 she became a pupil of William Lewis in Chicago. She then began playing in and was soon made assistant concertmaster of the Aurora (Illinois) Symphony Orchestra. Her debut as soloist with this orchestra took place in 1880. She further studied in Europe with Schradieck in Leipzig (1881-1882) and Charles Dancla in Paris (1882-1883.) She spent a year intermittently concertizing in London and then studied briefly with Joseph Joachim (1884-1885) who conducted the orchestra when she gave her Berlin debut with the Berlin Philharmonic in March of 1885 playing the Bruch g minor concerto. Returning to the U.S., she gave her New York debut with the New York Philharmonic on November 14, 1885 again playing Bruch’s first concerto. She was then eighteen years old. She soon began including works by contemporary American composers in her programs, including Arthur Foote, Henry Huss, Victor Herbert, and John Carpenter. She gave the American premieres of the Tchaikovsky, Dvorak, and Sibelius concertos. Mastering a very extensive repertoire, Powell also frequently played the concertos of Saint Saenz, Lalo, Arensky, Conus, and Rimsky Korsakov, among others. Her premiere of the Sibelius concerto on November 30, 1906 was especially significant although this concerto did not enter the standard violin repertoire until after Heifetz championed it. Powell founded a quartet in 1894 and a trio in 1908. She frequently wrote her own program notes and wrote numerous articles for music journals. I don’t know if she ever took students. Among her many violins was a Guadagnini (1775) which was later sold to Henry Ford, the car maker. She did a lot of recording for RCA during the industry’s infancy (1904-1907). YouTube has postings of a few of her recordings. Maud Powell died on January 8, 1920, at age 52. 
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