Maud Powell

Maud Powell. , Maud Powell's devotion to her violin, her art and humanity made her one of America's most revered and beloved musicians. The great-hearted artist believed strongly that “nothing was ever accomplished without faith and enthusiasm”. Her love for her art and her joy in sharing music gave Powell the courage to be a remarkable pioneer in music., Sculptor Joseph Heyd's statue captures America's acknowledged “Educator of a Nation”, holding her treasured violin, perhaps as she looked when she first played in the city of her birth., Maud Powell arrived in Peru on 8 February 1908, in a heavy snowstorm on the evening of her first concert in Peru. She was brought from the railway station to the Maze home bundled under snow-white blankets trimmed in red in an open carriage drawn by two white horses. Only horse-drawn vehicles could get through the huge drifts and blinding snow., The concert at Turn Hall had been sold out. A floral tribute arranged like a music stand awaited the violinist on stage. Powell felt that no gift had been more “superb” nor had any “touched a more responsive heart-chord”. The artist was introduced by Peru's superintendent of schools and welcomed with a rousing ovation. She began to play “Home Sweet Home”. “And then, for nearly two hours … the audience was held in almost breathless silence, broken only by frequent bursts of applause, while the great violinist seemed to lose herself in her art and filled the hall with the ravishing music which has made her a world celebrity.” Twin City News-Herald., Powell later wrote a poignant letter of thanks to the townspeople:, “The return to the city of my birth, the warm reception given me by the people of Peru, and of LaSalle and other neighboring towns, will live with me always as one of the most tender of memories. Many, many old friends of my grandparents, Mr. and Mrs. Wm. Paul, and of my dear father and mother, by coming to the concert through that terrible snow storm, showed a loyalty to them and to me, which touched me inexpressibly.”, She returned in 1910 and 1913 to give recitals benefitting the Peru Hospital Fund, a gracious gesture commemorated by a plaque given in 1987 to the Illinois Valley Community Hospitai by fifth grade “Brainbusters” attending Peru's Northview School., Maud Powell was born in Peru on 22 August 1867, in a two-story brick house at 1112 Bluff Street. Her mother Minnie Paul (1843-1925), an accomplished pianist and gifted amateur composer, had grown up in Peru. Her father, William Bramwell Powell (1836-1904), an innovative educator, had come to Peru in 1862 and was Peru's superintendent of public schools until 1870., A prodigy, Powell began violin study in Aurora, IL, then studied four years with William Lewis in Chicago. She completed her training with the great masters Henry Schradieck in Leipzig, Charles Dancla in Paris and Joseph Joachim in Berlin. She made her New York debut at eighteen performing the Bruch G Minor Violin Concerto with America's foremost conductor Theodore Thomas and the New York Philharmonic on 14 November 1885. The intelligence, energy and vigor in her playing reflected her American spirit and the brilliance, optimism and enthusiasm with which she lived., Powell's appearance marked a new age in American culture and the rise of the modern woman; she was:, ♫ America's first great master of the violin of international rank; , ♫ the first solo instrumentalist to record for the Victor Talking Machine Company's Celebrity Artist Series (Red Seal label) in 1904; and , ♫ the first violinist to introduce now famous concertos by Tchaikovsky, Dvorák, and Sibelius to American audiences;, As one of America's foremost pioneers in music, Maud Powell: , ♫ performed for the soldiers during World War I; , ♫ toured Europe, North America and South Africa to wide acclaim, appearing with the great orchestras and conductors of her time., Upon Maud Powell's death on 8 January 1920, the New York Symphony paid tribute to the “supreme and unforgettable artist”: “She was not only America's great master of the violin, but a woman of lofty purpose and noble achievement, whose life and art brought to countless thousands inspiration for the good and the beautiful.”