Ruth Kemper

Kemper was born in Salem, West Virginia. Her father, T. Francis Kemper, taught music at Salem College,^[1] and her mother Daisy Lowther Kemper was a clubwoman^[2] who was also her concert manager.^[3] She began playing violin as a small child in Clarksburg, and was hailed as a musical prodigy.^[4][5] She studied with Theodore Spiering,^[6][7] Charles Martin Loeffler, Eugène Ysaÿe and George Enescu, and won the Lilli Lehmann Medal at the Salzburg Orchestral Academy.^[8][9]

Kemper was a concert violinist as a young woman, based in New York.^[10] She and singer Yvonne de Treville gave a concert together in 1920.^[11] She gave recitals at Aeolian Hall in 1921, accompanied by Edwin Grasse,^[3][12] and in 1924, accompanied by Arthur Loesser.^[13] She played in the National Festival Trio with pianist Kathryn Eyman and cellist Lucille Orell.^[14] In 1931, she gave a concert on BBC radio while performing in London.^[15] She debuted new works in the 1920s and 1930s, including compositions by Marion Bauer^[16] and Virgil Thomson.^[17]

Kemper was also known as a conductor and music director.^[18] She conducted the Salzburg Orchestra as a young woman.^[9] She was music director of the WPA Music School Orchestra in 1935.^[8] She was founder and director of the New York Cameo Chamber Orchestra.^[15] She taught at the Brooklyn Music School Settlement in the 1920s,^[19] and at Turtle Bay Music School from the 1930s. She was the Turtle Bay school's executive director from 1956 to 1969.^[8]

Kemper was a founder and president (from 1955 to 1957) of the National Guild of Community Music Schools.^[20] She continued teaching violin into the 1970s.^[8]

Ruth Kemper died in 1985, aged 83 years, at home in New York City.^[8]