Kemp Stillings

American musician (1888–1967)

Kemp Stillings

Kemp Stillings and her violin, from a 1917 publication

Born|

Katharine Kemp Stillings

(1888-06-30)June 30, 1888

Roxbury, Massachusetts

Died| April 30, 1967(1967-04-30) (aged 78)

New York City

Occupation(s)| Violinist, music educator

Katharine Kemp Stillings (June 30, 1888 – April 30, 1967) was a violinist, composer, and music educator.

## Early life

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Katharine Kemp Stillings was born in Roxbury, Massachusetts, and began studying violin from a very early age. She went to Berlin to study with Joseph Joachim, and to Saint Petersburg for further studies with Leopold Auer.[1]

## Career

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Stillings performed in Russia and Finland before World War I.[2] She played with pianist Frances Nash in 1917 and 1918, in New York and several other American cities, and was a guest soloist with the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra and the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra.[3][4][5] She toured in South America in 1920.[6]

Stillings became suddenly blind in the 1920s, and after that focused on teaching.[7] "It has been a handicap, but also a blessing," she told an interviewer in 1940. "It has made my critical hearing ever so much more acute. Besides, something like this makes us so human."[8] She was on the faculty at the New Jersey College for Women from 1927 to 1952,[9] and taught her own master classes in New York City,[10] which were modeled on the pedagogy of Joachim and Auer.[11] Her students included conductor Walter Eisenberg.[12]

Stillings published violin exercise books for children, The Great Adventure (1928), At the Crossroads (1929), and The Giant Talks (1929),[13] and wrote compositions with titles like "Take a Little Eighth Note", "Tick Tock", and "Double Meaning".[14] She also took an interest in cookery, sharing recipes for fruit dishes with a newspaper in 1940.[15]

## Personal life

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Kemp Stillings died in 1967, at her home in New York City.[16]

## References

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1. ^ "Kemp Stillings Talks of Auer and Russia" Musical Courier (August 16, 1917): 29.
2. ^ "Kemp Stillings to Make First American Tour". Musical Courier. 75: 24. July 26, 1917.
3. ^ "Frances Nash and Kemp Stillings to be Heard Jointly". Musical Courier. 75: 15. October 4, 1917.
4. ^ "Frances Nash and Kemp Stillings Already Booked for Long Season". Musical America. 26: 33. October 6, 1917.
5. ^ "Kemp Stillings' Plans and Bookings". Musical Courier. 75: 29. December 6, 1917.
6. ^ "Music and Musical Literature". The Violinist. 26: 209. May 1920.
7. ^ "Near-Blindness Halts One Career for Violinist, Launches Another". The Tampa Tribune. November 5, 1939. p. 16. Retrieved December 10, 2019 - via Newspapers.com.
8. ^ "Conquest of the Melodic Line". The Philadelphia Inquirer. May 26, 1940. p. 87. Retrieved December 10, 2019 - via Newspapers.com.
9. ^ "Pupil of Kemp Stillings, N. J. C. Music Instructor, Plays for President Somoza at White House". The Central New Jersey Home News. May 14, 1939. p. 4. Retrieved December 10, 2019 - via Newspapers.com.
10. ^ "Two Musicians to Present Program for College Club". The Central New Jersey Home News. December 6, 1932. p. 9. Retrieved December 10, 2019 - via Newspapers.com.
11. ^ "Kemp Stillings to Present Master Class in New York". The Central New Jersey Home News. September 2, 1937. p. 15. Retrieved December 10, 2019 - via Newspapers.com.
12. ^ "Hit it Hard". The Arrow. October 9, 1953. p. 6. Retrieved December 10, 2019 - via Colorado Historic Newspapers Collection.
13. ^ Merz, Otto (1929). "Review of The Giant Talks". Music Supervisors' Journal. 15 (4): 98. doi:10.2307/3382335. ISSN 1559-2472. JSTOR 3382335. S2CID 144812186.
14. ^ Catalog of Copyright Entries: Musical compositions. Library of Congress, Copyright Office. 1945. pp. 152, 223, 228, 240, 680.
15. ^ Turner, Grace (February 18, 1940). "Food Flash! New Recipes for Fruit". The Indianapolis Star. p. 63. Retrieved December 10, 2019 - via Newspapers.com.
16. ^ "Kemp Stillings, 78, Violinist, Teacher" The New York Times (May 2, 1967): 47.

## External links

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* Cora Cooper, "Kemp Stillings: The Most Famous Violin Teacher You've Never Heard Of" (May 27, 2012) and "Kemp Stillings: Part 2" (June 7, 2012), "Kemp Stillings: The Finale!" (July 17, 2012), and "Update on Kemp Stillings Article" (August 14, 2012), at Violin Music by Women: A Graded Anthology . Four blog posts about Stillings.

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