Nellie Bangs Skelton
American composer, pianist, singer and vocal coach
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Cornelia (“Nellie”) Pomeroy Bangs Skelton DePue (August 8, 1855 - November 23, 1911)[1] was an American composer,[2] pianist,[3] singer and vocal coach who toured the United States as a pianist. She published and performed as Nellie Bangs Skelton.[4]
Skelton was born in Lacon, Illinois, to Harriet Cornelia Pomeroy and Mark Bangs, a judge.[5] She began studying piano at age seven, and published her first composition at age eleven. She married John Skelton and later married Elmer DePue, but eventually divorced both of them.[1] She studied piano in Chicago with Eugenie de Roode Rice.[6][7]
Skelton toured the United States as a pianist with the Marie Litta Company for two years in the early 1880s,[1] then joined the Slayton Concert Company as a pianist.[8] By 1896, she had formed her own concert company with her husband Elmer De Pue, a tenor.[9] She also taught piano at the Armour Institute[10] and at the Soper School of Oratory,[11] both in Chicago, and toured for the International Young People’s Lecture Bureau as a pianist.[12]
Skelton’s music was published by Clayton F. Summy [13] and Theodore Presser.[14] Her compositions include:
Piano
Vocal
- “Asleep, Adream Awake Serenade” (text by Edmund Vance Cooke; music by Kate Vanderpoel; piano transcription by Nellie Bangs Skelton)[18]
- “I’m a Merry Little Vivandiere” (text by Fanchon H. Thompson)[19]