Fay, Amy (1844–1928)

American pianist who wrote the popular Music-Study in Germany , managed the New York Women's Philharmonic Society, and enjoyed a major concert career. Born Amelia Muller Fay in Bayou Goula, Mississippi, on May 21, 1844; died in Watertown, Massachusetts, on February 28, 1928; fifth of nine children of Charles Fay (a scholar) and Charlotte Emily (Hopkins) Fay (1817–1856, a visual artist and pianist); sister of Melusina "Zina" Fay Peirce (1836–1923); never married.

Amy Fay studied in Berlin with Carl Tausig, Ludwig Deppe, and Theodor Kullak, and was accepted in Franz Liszt's master class. She returned to the United States in 1875, settled in Boston, and quickly achieved a major career as a concert artist. Her letters home from Berlin were published as Music-Study in Germany (Chicago: Jansen, McClurg), a volume of sharp observations on cultural stresses endured by a young American student in Germany. First published in 1880, the book went through 25 editions and was published in Great Britain and France as well as in the United States. Music-Study in Germany was reprinted by Dover with an introduction by Frances Dillon in 1965 and has been translated into French and German. Fay's biographical details of Liszt the man and artist are especially revealing and continue to be of value.

After living in Chicago for several decades, she moved to New York, where she and her energetic sister Melusina Fay Peirce managed the New York Women's Philharmonic Society (1899–1914), an organization that vigorously promoted the cause of women in the world of classical music. In an article for Music magazine in October 1900, Fay argued that women were too preoccupied with encouraging men in composition, with the result of neglecting their own talents. In a letter to the Music Teachers Association in 1903 regarding its forthcoming convention, she lamented the lack of women on the performing platform and noted that women seemed to be used only as social props and for fund-raising. Her personal friends included Ignace Paderewski and other noted musicians as well as literary giants, including the poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.

sources:

McCarthy, S. Margaret William. "Fay, Amy [Amelia Muller]," in New Grove Dictionary of American Music. Vol. 2, p. 105.

suggested reading:

James, Edward T., Janet W. James, and Paul S. Boyer. Notable American Women, 1607–1950. Belknap, 1971.

McCarthy, S. Margaret William, ed. Amy Fay: The American Years, 1879–1916. Detroit, MI: Information Coordinators, 1986.

——. Amy Fay: America's Notable Woman of Music. Warren, MI: Harmonie Park Press, 1995.

Shaffer, Karen A., and Robert Dumm. "Amy Fay, American Pianist: Something to Write Home About," in The Maud Powell Signature. Vol. 1, no. 2. Fall 1995.

collections:

Some of Amy Fay's correspondence can be found in the Boston Public Library, Music Division, Department of Rare Books and Manuscripts; correspondence can also be found in Boston's Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum and New England Conservatory of Music (concert programs).

John Haag , Athens, Georgia