Discipline: Music Composition

Jeanne Behrend

Discipline: Music Composition
Region: Philadelphia, PA
MacDowell Fellowships: 1940
Jeanne Behrend (1911-1988) was an American composer, pianist, musicologist, and educator from Philadelphia. Behrend studied composition and piano at the Curtis Institute with Rosario Scalero and Josef Hofmann, and made her debut in 1922 with the Philadelphia Orchestra performing one of her own compositions. After completing her studies, Behrend taught composition and piano at the Julliard School of Music, Philadelphia Conservatory, and Temple University, and worked as an editor, editing sections of Louis Moreau Gottschalk piano scores, and a collection of Stephen Foster’s songs. Behrend received several accolades for her work, including the Joseph Bearns prize from Columbia University, a sponsorship from Heitor Villa-Lobos to tour in South America, and the Order of the Southern Cross Award from Brazil. Additionally, she served as the founder and director of the Philadelphia Festival of Western Hemisphere Music.

Studios

Sprague-Smith

Jeanne Behrend worked in the Sprague-Smith studio.

In January of 1976, the original Sprague-Smith Studio — built in 1915–1916 and funded by music students of Mrs. Charles Sprague-Smith of the Veltin School — was destroyed by fire. Redesigned by William Gnade, Sr., a Peterborough builder, the fieldstone structure was rebuilt the same year from the foundation up, reusing the original fieldstone. A few…

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