Louise Lincoln Kerr

Louise Kerr helped to co-found and developed The Phoenix Symphony (1947), The Phoenix Chamber Music Society (1960), The Scottsdale Center for the Arts, The National Society of Arts and Letters (1944) (in Phoenix, Arizona), Monday Morning Musicals, The Bach and Madrigal Society (1958) (now the Phoenix Chorale), Young Audiences, The Musicians Club, and the Phoenix Cello Society (now the Arizona Cello Society). Kerr was also a benefactor to the Herberger School of Music at Arizona State University. She was inducted into the Arizona Women's Hall of Fame on October 21, 2004 and was nominated by conductor and musicologist Carolyn Waters Broe.

• Name — Louise Lincoln Kerr • Birth Name — Myrtie Louise Lincoln • Born — 24 April 1892 • Birthplace — Cleveland, Ohio, U.S. • Died — 10 December 1977 • Place of death — Cottonwood, Arizona • Genre — Classical music • Instrument — Violin, viola and piano

Louise Lincoln was born in Cleveland, Ohio, on April 24, 1892. Her father, John C. Lincoln, was a notable engineer who founded Lincoln Electric. She was born Myrtie Louise Lincoln after her mother Myrtle and her grandmother Louisa but changed her name to Louise Lincoln in grade school before 1905. Kerr's mother Myrtle was a musician and taught Louise how to play the piano at age six, violin at age seven, and she later learned to play viola. Lincoln furthered her skills under Sol Marcosson, a concertmaster of the early Cleveland Symphony Orchestra (CSO).

Louise Lincoln attended Barnard College in the year 1910 in New York City, an institution with strong ties to Columbia University. Columbia Professor Daniel Gregory Mason taught her elementary music form and advanced harmony and Professor Cornelius Rubner taught her composition and symphonic orchestration. Lincoln won a pair of awards for her vocal compositions while attending college. She also studied for a time with Igor Stravinsky and Sergei Prokofiev. While at Barnard, she took private violin lessons with Dutch soloist Christiaan Timmner at the Institute of Musical Art, which would later become part of the Juilliard School of Music. She left New York around 1913 due to the death of her mother and to join the Cleveland Municipal Orchestra under the direction of Christiaan Timmner. When Timmner was appointed conductor of the early CSO, he extended an invitation to Lincoln to join his violin section. She was one of the youngest members of the orchestra and one of only two women. By 1920, she had returned to New York after she married Peter Kjer (pronounced "Care") and started her family of eight children. During this time, she did not play her violin nor compose. While in New York, she got a job working for the Aeolian Company proofing piano rolls for player pianos. There Louise Kerr met with noted pianists and composers who were recording their music, including Sergei Prokofiev, Alfred Cortot, and George Gershwin. Gershwin worked for Aeolian Company at the same time as Kerr. She was also a friend of the renowned conductor of the New York Philharmonic, Dimitri Mitropoulos, and the violinist Isaac Stern. When one of her daughters developed a respiratory condition, the Kjer family moved to Phoenix, Arizona, in 1936. They also built homes in Cottonwood and Scottsdale, Arizona, and Pasadena, California. They changed their name to Kerr to match the name of actress Deborah Kerr. After Peter Kerr died in 1939, Louise returned to music composition. In 1940 she buried two of her daughters. One died of tuberculosis and the other in an accident in Flagstaff, Arizona. While in Los Angeles, Kerr's violin was stolen on December 7, 1941. Later, she continued to perform on the viola as her main instrument with the Pasadena Symphony, Phoenix and Flagstaff Symphonies. She was a founding member of the Phoenix Symphony when it was founded in 1947, donating funds and property for the organization. • Illustration — Kerr's home and studio, donated to Arizona State University Kerr's symphonic piece "Arizona Profiles" was commissioned for the groundbreaking dedication ceremonies of the Scottsdale Center for the Performing Arts in 1968 and premiered by the Phoenix Symphony. Four Seasons Orchestra performed her Enchanted Mesa at the concert of Surprise Stadium in the year 2004 and also at Phoenix in June 2009. The same orchestra is known for arranging the European premiere of Kerr's Enchanted Mesa in Vienna, Austria on June 27, 2009 for the Haydn Festival and have performed several of her chamber orchestra and chamber music pieces for the Arizona Centennial in 2012. The Four Seasons String Quartet performed her String Quartet in A Major in 2001 at ASU and several other places. Her ballet Tableau Vivant was commissioned for the installation of John Waddell's twelve statues in front of Phoenix Symphony Hall and premiered by the Phoenix Symphony in 1975. Very few of Kerr's works have been officially edited or published publicly.

• Type of work — Details (premiere dates) • Works for full orchestra — Arizona Pageant • Children's March • Comanche Song • Country Fiddler • Enchanted Mesa for Orchestra (1948) • Enchanted Mesa (for Soprano and Orchestra) • Ileana • Indian Lullaby (1953/1954) • Indian Round Dance (1953) • Profiles of Arizona (1968) • Senor Alcalde Mayor • Sicilienne • Spanish Town • Suite for Orchestra (1952) • Suite -Rigaudon • Ballets and incidental music — Indian Legend (Ballet Noelpie) • La Muerta de la Locura • Naked Came I (1957) • Peer Gynt • Tableau Vivant (1974) • Chamber orchestra — Ballade • Concerto for Violin, Strings and Piano • Little Lost Girl • In Memoriam • Indian Poem • Nocturne • Pastorale Symphony • Prelude for Winds and Piano • Prelude, Arioso, and Rigaudon for Flute, Oboe and Strings • Prelude for Winds and Strings • Presto for Winds and Strings • Quintet for Oboe and Strings (1961) • Rigaudon #2 • Romance • Chamber music Piano solo — Preludes: I – XII (1966–1969) • Toccata • Soliloquy (Left Hand Alone) • Chamber music Duos — Cello and Piano: Habanera and Toccata • Viola and Piano: Berceuse, Habanera, Lament, Las Fatigas Del Querer, Toccata. • Violin and Piano: Aubade, Berceuse (April 1945), Country Fiddler (Aug. 1947), Las Fatigas del Querer, Habanera in A minor and F minor, Happy Birthday to You (1971), Hebrew Song (Sept. 1942), In Memoriam, Legend, Lingara, Marche Mignonne, Moong-wah (Hopi Lullaby about a Hopi woman giving birth, composed 1967), Prelude (Version I & II), [(1971) for Diane Sullivan violin and Betty Cummings piano] Presto (written between 1970 and 1975), Rigaudon, Spanish Dance (Spanish Folk Song) (1972 or 73), Tempo di Valse, and Waltz. • Sonata for Violin and Piano in A Major (two movements), April 24, 1914 • Violin and Viola Duos: Etude (performed at ASU Kerr Centre in 1975 and April 21, 2001) and Orientale • Piano Duo (four hands): Muerto de la Locura, Rigaudon, Tarantella, Untitled (also orchestrated score), Cancion Espagnol (Senior Alcalde Major). (1970) • Quartets, Quintets and Trio Piano Quartets and Quintets: In Memoriam, Mau Corazon, Nocturne, Nostalie, Suite for Piano Quintet (also orchestrated score), and Rigaudon. • String Quartet in A Major (four movements) – Premiered April 22, 2001 Four Seasons String Quartet, ASU. • String Quartets Movements: Ballade, German Dance, Mau Corazon, Mazurka, Midnight, Passepied, Pastorale, Rigaudon, Serenade, Shabat Shalom. • Trio for Piano, Clarinet and Cello – Premiered by Charles Bowers clarinetist, Rolland Searight cellist, and Arnold Bullock pianist c.1960 at ASU. This work was reviewed by Huff in 1966. • Vocal compositions — Dor Me Jesu • Indian Poem (version with strings) • Indian Serenade for Soprano, Flute and Piano • Song of an Indian Woman • Miscellaneous compositions — Various pieces for piano and one instrument • L'Ondine (sketches and fragments) • Preludes (sketches and fragments) • Nocturnes (various sketches) • Various sketches and fragments • Lost works — Chorus – To Aurora, Goddess of Dawn (1911) Barnard College, New York. • Chorus – To Iris, Goddess of the Rainbow (1912) awarded winning composer for 1912 chorus by Barnard College, New York.