Louise Lincoln Kerr
| Louise Lincoln Kerr | |
|---|---|
| Birth name | Louise Lincoln |
| Born | April 4, 1892 Cleveland, Ohio |
| Died | Script error: The function "death_date_and_age" does not exist. Cottonwood, Arizona |
| Genres | Classical music |
| Instruments | Violin |
Louise Lincoln Kerr (April 24, 1892 – December 10, 1977) was an American musician, composer, and philanthropist from Ohio. She co-founded the National Society of Arts and Letters in 1944 and the Phoenix Symphony in 1947. Kerr was also a benefactor to the School of Music at Arizona State University. She was inducted into the Arizona Women's Hall of Fame in 2004.
Biography
Louise Lincoln was born in Cleveland, Ohio, on April 4, 1892. Her father, John C. Lincoln, was a successful engineer who founded Lincoln Electric. Kerr's mother Myrtie was a musician and taught Louise how to play the piano and viola. Lincoln furthered her skills under Sol Marcosson, a concertmaster of the Cleveland Symphony Orchestra (CSO). She attended Barnard College in New York City, an institution with strong ties to Columbia University. Columbia professors David Gregory Mason, Christian Timmner, and Cornelius Rybnor taught Kerr viola and music composition. Lincoln won a pair of awards for her vocal compositions while at the college. She also studied for a time with Igor Stravinsky and Sergei Prokofiev.[1]
When Timmner was appointed conductor of the 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. Lincoln moved to the East Coast when she married Peter Kjer and they raised a family. There, she worked with the Aeolian Company, proofing piano rolls, and befriended local musicians, including George Gershwin and Alfred Cortot. The Kjers, who changed their name to the Kerrs, raised eight children. When one developed a respiratory condition in 1936, the family moved to Phoenix, Arizona. After Peter died in 1939, Louise returned to music composition.[1]
From 1942 to 1945, Kerr performed with the Pasadena Symphony in Pasadena, California. Kerr co-founded the National Society of Arts and Letters (NSAL), a non-profit group who provided financial assistance to female musicians, in 1944.[1] She was a founding member of the Phoenix Symphony when it was founded in 1947, donating funds and property for the organization.[1] In 1959, she commissioned the Louise Lincoln Kerr House and Studio, a residence and performance venue in nearby Scottsdale. Performers at the studio included the Budapest and Juilliard String Quartets.[1]
Kerr was also a benefactor of the School of Music at Arizona State University (ASU). She founded its Kerr Memorial Scholarship Fund and donated her music library to the school and the ASU Archives. Kerr also donated her home and studio as a chamber music performance venue, which is now known as the Kerr Cultural Center. ASU presented Kerr with an honorary doctorate later in her life. She died at her ranch in Cottonwood, Arizona, on December 10, 1977.[1] Throughout her career, Kerr composed over 100 works. Kerr was inducted into the Arizona Women's Hall of Fame in 2004.[2] Her former home and studio in Scottsdale was recognized with a listing on the National Register of Historic Places on April 14, 2010.[3]
