Amy Marcy Cheney Beach (1867-1944); USA

Amy Marcy Cheney Beach (1867–1944) was an American composer and pianist who became one of the most prominent American musicians of her generation and the first American woman to achieve major recognition as a composer of large-scale concert music. Born in Henniker, New Hampshire, she displayed extraordinary musical gifts in childhood and made her professional piano debut in Boston in 1883. In 1885 she married the Boston physician Henry Harris Aubrey Beach; in accordance with his wishes she sharply curtailed public performance and devoted herself increasingly to composition, publishing and appearing professionally as Mrs. H. H. A. Beach. Largely self-taught as a composer, she mastered orchestration and advanced compositional techniques through independent study. After her husband's death in 1910 she resumed an active international performing career, touring Europe as both pianist and composer before returning permanently to the United States.

Beach's music is rooted in the late-Romantic tradition, combining rich chromatic harmony, lyrical melody, contrapuntal craftsmanship, and a strong command of large-scale form. Her Mass in E-flat Major established her reputation as a composer, while the Gaelic Symphony, premiered by the Boston Symphony Orchestra in 1896, was the first symphony composed and published by an American woman and drew on Irish-derived thematic material. Her Piano Concerto in C-sharp Minor is among her most ambitious works, and her chamber music includes the Violin Sonata in A Minor, Piano Quintet in F-sharp Minor, and Piano Trio in A Minor. She also wrote extensively for piano and voice, including Hermit Thrush at Eve, Hermit Thrush at Morn, and the song The Year's at the Spring. A leading member of the group later called the Second New England School, Beach helped demonstrate that an American-born composer—and, in particular, a woman working within the restrictive conventions of her era—could command the full range of European concert forms while developing a distinctive individual voice.

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Read biography at allmusic.com.