Discipline: Music Composition

Marion Bauer

Discipline: Music Composition
MacDowell Fellowships: 1919, 1920, 1921, 1925, 1927, 1928, 1929, 1931, 1932, 1933, 1934, 1935, 1936, 1937, 1938, 1940, 1940, 1941, 1942, 1944
Marion Bauer (1882-1955) was an American composer, teacher, writer, and music critic from Walla Walla, Washington. Bauer never received a formal degree in composition, but studied informally with several teachers, including her sister Emilie who was also a composer. Bauer was the first woman to serve on the faculty at New York University, where she taught music history and composition with a textbook she wrote, and was a guest lecturer at the Julliard School, Columbia University, the Chatauqua Summer Music Institute, Mills College, the Carnegie Institute, and the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music. Bauer was also an advocate for new music, and helped found the American Music Guild, the American Music Center, the American Composer’s Alliance, and the Society of American Women Composers. Bauer’s works were widely performed by ensembles such as the New York Philharmonic, and had her work in concerts put on by organizations like the League of Composers, the WPA Federal Music Project, and the Phi Beta National Fraternity of Music and Speech.

Studios

Phi Beta

Marion Bauer worked in the Phi Beta studio.

Funded by the Phi Beta Fraternity, a national professional fraternity of music and speech founded in 1912, Phi Beta Studio was built between 1929–1931 of granite quarried on the MacDowell grounds. The small studio is a simple in design, but displays a pleasing combination of materials with its granite walls and colorful slate roofing. Inside is…

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