Jessie Baetz
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
June 28, 1894
Jessie Baetz | |
|---|---|
 Jessie Baetz, from a 1936 immigration form | |
| Born | Jessie Elizabeth Drummer June 28, 1894 Toronto, Ontario, Canada |
| Died | November 28, 1980 (aged 86) |
| Occupation | Artist, composer, and pianist |
| Spouse |
Walter Baetz
(m. 1926; died 1978) |
Jessie Baetz (born Jessie Elizabeth Drummer;[1] June 28, 1894 – November 28, 1980)[2] was a Canadian-American artist, composer, and pianist.
Baetz was born in Toronto, Ontario, Canada,[3] the daughter of John Drummer and Esther Ann Oughtred Drummer.[2][4] She studied[5] and taught at the Toronto Conservatory of Music.[citation needed]
Career
She immigrated to New York City, where 1930s census records list her occupation as painter.[citation needed] Her art was included in a Christmas exhibit at the Jumble Shop on West 8th Street.[6] She studied with modernist composer, Johanna Beyer,[7] and played in her concerts for the New York Composers' Forum. Baetz's music was influenced by Beyer and Henry Cowell's use of such techniques as tone clusters, polymeters, string piano, and playing the piano with forearms. Three of her works were performed at the Composers' Forum on December 15, 1937, where they were part of a program that also included music by Rudolph Forst and Harrison Kerr.[8][9]
Her visual art consisted of "painting sculptures or spatial creations", including colorful masks.[10] She exhibited her work at the Phoenicia Library in Phoenicia, New York in 1963,[11] 1966,[12] and 1970.[10]
