Edith Haines Kuester
American composer
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Mary Edith Haines Kuester (May 8, 1870 – June 6, 1956) was an American composer, songwriter, pianist, singer, and music educator.
May 8, 1870
Edith Haines Kuester | |
|---|---|
 Edith Haines Kuester, from a 1908 publication | |
| Born | Mary Edith Haines May 8, 1870 Indiana, U.S. |
| Died | June 6, 1956 (aged 86) San Diego, California, U.S. |
| Occupations | Pianist, composer, songwriter, music educator |
Early life and education
Haines was born in Indiana[1] and raised in Michigan, Colorado, and California, the daughter of Henry O. Haines and Margaret Leonardson Haines. She showed musical aptitude from an early age,[2] and studied with composer Bruno Huhn and other musicians.[3]
Career
Kuester was a concert pianist,[4][5] church organist, accompanist,[6] vocal coach, and piano teacher.[3] She also composed music,[7][8] and published a book of music for piano students.[9] She gave a concert with singer Delia Donal Ayer and violinist Estelle Franklin Gray in Santa Fe in 1911,[10] and a recital with her husband and pianist Olga Lieber in 1930, in Montreal.[11]
Kuester assisted the musical director of the Panama–Pacific International Exposition in 1915.[12] In 1920 she was the director of the Wednesday Musical Club in Burlingame, California.[13] In 1928 she directed a musicale for the Westmount Women's Club in Montreal.[14] In 1940 she taught classes at the Warren Conservatory of Music in Pennsylvania, where her husband was head of the voice department.[15]
Publications
- "When Love is Best" (1911, words by Ada Foster Murray) [16]
- "Springtime of Love" (1912, sheet music)[17]
- "Virgilia" (1915, words by Edwin Markham)[18]
- "One Hour" (words by Edwin Markham)[2]
- "In Helena's Garden" (song cycle, words by Richard Watson Gilder)[2][19]
- "The Missive", "The Voice of June", "The Sunset Window", "The Gray Walls of the Garden", "The Sun-Dial" "Three Flowers of the Garden", "Early Autumn", and "Abendgang" (1910s, compositions)[1][2]
- "Ebb Tide", "To a Yellow Pansy" (1910s, compositions)[8]
- "The Buttercup", "Gay Daffodil", "Renunciation", "Reverie", "Secrets", "To a Rose" and "To the Crocus" (1910s, sheet music)[20][21][22]
- "The Jewel Chain" (1928, song cycle)[14]
- "Following the Piper"/"Sailor Dance"/"Peter's Pumpkin Shell" (1939, sheet music)[23]
- "Tone miniatures: Twelve short pieces for piano solo" (1943, booklet)[9]
Personal life
Haines moved to New York City in 1902.[2] She married German-born musician, concert manager, and journalist Eugene V. Kuester in 1908.[1][2] The couple moved to Portland, Oregon, in 1912,[19][24] then to Burlingame, California, in 1917,[12][13] and they were based in Montreal in the 1920s and 1930s.[5][25] By 1940 they lived in Warren, Pennsylvania.[6] She died in 1956, at the age of 86, in San Diego, California.