Raising Juilliard

Abstract

“I continued like a juggler to keep my three plates, teaching, writing, and music, in the air,” Erskine wrote of his ever-accelerating professional pace during the second half of the 1920s decade.¹ His music plate in particular began to overflow after his appearances with the New York Symphony, the Baltimore Symphony, and the New York Musical Art Quartet in 1927 and 1928. When he was out of town lecturing or attending conferences, local amateur orchestras often asked if he would appear as a soloist. He typically agreed to donate as much time as possible, concluding: “Apparently the spectacle of a novelist at the piano risking his neck on a difficult piece of music had some drawing power with audiences. In quite a number of places, I was invited to repeat the concert the following afternoon or the following evening whenever the demand for tickets outran the capacity of the hall.”² When he played with the large Baltimore Symphony (e.g., 34 violins, 12 violas, and 8 cellos), several hundred of the nearly 3,500 in attendance had to find standing room.³ Eventually, he estimated that he had appeared as a guest artist with more than 200 amateur orchestras throughout the country, typically in small-town playhouses or school auditoriums. His repertoire favorites were pieces by Schumann, Mozart, Cesar Franck, and Edward MacDowell.