Daniels, Mabel Wheeler (1878–1971)

American composer who cofounded the MacDowell Colony. Born in Swampscott, Massachusetts, in 1878; died in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in 1971; only child of George Frank Daniels (a businessman) and Sarah (Wheeler) Daniels; graduated cum laude from Radcliffe College, 1900; studied orchestration at the New England Conservatory of Music; attended Munich's Royal Conservatory, 1902.

Mabel Wheeler Daniels' early talent for music was encouraged both by her father, a businessman and president of the Handel and Haydn Society, and her mother, who oversaw piano lessons for her daughter at an early age. Daniels later blossomed at Radcliffe, where she composed and conducted operettas and sang in the Glee Club. She continued her studies at the New England Conservatory of music and in 1902 traveled to Munich to attend the prestigious Royal Conservatory. Upon her return, she published a book on her experiences called An American Girl in Munich (1905). From 1911 to 1918, she was based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where she directed the Glee Club at Radcliffe (1911–13) before becoming the musical director at Simmons College in Boston (1913–18). With her friend Marian MacDowell , Daniels helped establish the MacDowell Colony in Peterborough, New Hampshire, a peaceful retreat where she worked on her own compositions, including several operettas, choral and vocal works, and orchestral and chamber music. Her cantata The Desolate City (1913) was first performed at the Colony and became one of her more popular works.

Although conservative in her politics as well as her music, Daniels felt strongly about women's rights and supported the suffragists. She insisted that her music be judged on merit alone, saying it made no difference whether the work was "written by a man or a woman or a Hottentot or a Unitarian." Daniels continued to compose into her 80s and died in 1971 at age 93.