Luella Totten
A young white woman posted with her arm on a tree branch. She is wearing a white dress and hat; her dark curly hair is arranged in an updo.
Bornc. 1870
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Died(1950-11-05)November 5, 1950
Los Angeles, California
NationalityAmerican
Other namesLouis von Heinrich, Louise von Heinrich, Luella Totten Patteson
Occupation(s)Pianist, composer, music educator

Luella Totten (c. 1870 – November 5, 1950) was an American pianist, composer, and music educator. She was also known as Louis von Heinrich.

Early life

Luella G. Totten was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, the daughter of William Henry Denny Totten[1] and Ann Elizabeth Covert Totten.[2] Her father was in the iron business.[3] "Pittsburgh, that wonderful city of steel, iron, coal, smoke, art and progress, with its unnumbered millions and millionaires, has produced nothing more remarkable than this woman composer," declared a music magazine in 1908.[4] She studied piano in Chicago, and in Vienna with Theodor Leschetizky. She also worked with Edvard Grieg.[5]

Later in life, she studied composition at Yale University School of Music. In 1900 she won the Steinert Scholarship, a competitive award for piano study at Yale.[6] In 1902 she became the third woman to earn a Bachelor of Music degree at Yale. She pursued further studies in composition at the Peabody Conservatory in Baltimore, and with Max Reger in Leipzig, before World War I.[7]

A white woman, seated in an ornate wooden chair. She is wearing a white corsetted gown. Her hair is arranged in an updo.
Luella Totten, or Louis von Heinrich, from a 1908 publication

Career

Totten taught music at Shimer College from 1894 to 1898. She had an affair with politician and physician Henry Winfield Haldeman. She was fired from her position at Shimer College when the affair became known. Haldeman died in 1905.[8] She later published his love poems to her as a book.

In 1908 she was billed as "Louis von Heinrich", and performed in concerts of her own compositions, in Paris,[9] and in London with the London Symphony Orchestra and vocalist Tilly Koenen.[10][11] "Her compositions include every conceivable form," explained one newspaper in 1908, "sonatas for piano, violin, and cello; songs; string quartets, trios, quintets, church music and orchestral works such as overtures, suits and symphonies."[12]

As "Miss Louis von Heinrich" she returned to teaching post-secondary music classes. She taught piano and composition at the Michigan Conservatory of Music in the 1908–1909 academic year.[12] In 1910 she was named to the faculty of the Northwestern Conservatory.[13] In 1911 she taught at Beaver College in Pennsylvania.[14] By 1912 she was back in Chicago, running a piano studio and giving recitals.[15]

Personal life

Luella Totten married Thomas E. Patteson, an English army officer, after 1912; in 1918 they were living in Edmonton, Alberta.[2] She was a recent widow when she died in late 1950,[16] in Los Angeles.[7][17]

References

  1. ↑ "William H. D. Totten". Pittsburgh Daily Post. June 2, 1912. p. 5. Retrieved December 11, 2019 – via Newspapers.com.
  2. 1 2 "Mrs. Elizabeth C. Totten". Butler Citizen. April 25, 1918. p. 5. Retrieved December 11, 2019 – via Newspapers.com.
  3. ↑ "Pittsburg Girl Honored". Pittsburgh Daily Post. October 19, 1900. p. 1. Retrieved December 11, 2019 – via Newspapers.com.
  4. ↑ "Louis von Heinrich, Composer". Musical Courier. 57: 29. July 29, 1908.
  5. ↑ "Miss Luella Totten". The Looker-on. 2: 659–660. April 1896.
  6. ↑ "Steinert Scholarship won by Miss Luella Totten of Pittsburg". The Morning Journal-Courier. October 20, 1900. p. 12. Retrieved December 11, 2019 – via Newspapers.com.
  7. 1 2 "Composers and instrumentalists · Musical Daughters of Eli: Women Pioneers at Yale". Online Exhibits@Yale. Retrieved December 11, 2019.
  8. ↑ Bryan, Mary Lynn; Bair, Barbara; Angury, Maree de; Addams, Jane (October 1, 2010). The Selected Papers of Jane Addams: vol. 1: Preparing to Lead, 1860-81. University of Illinois Press. p. 516. ISBN 978-0-252-09067-7.
  9. ↑ "Music in Paris". Musical Courier. 56: 9. February 26, 1908.
  10. ↑ "Miss Louis von Heinrich in London". Musical Courier. 57: 14. July 15, 1908.
  11. ↑ C. D. G. (July 1, 1908). "In the Concert Room". The Monthly Musical Record. 38: 162.
  12. 1 2 "Louis von Heinrich Comes to Teach Piano and Composition". Detroit Free Press. September 6, 1908. p. 6. Retrieved December 11, 2019 – via Newspapers.com.
  13. ↑ "Twelve Instructors Added to Conservatory Faculty". Star Tribune. October 2, 1910. p. 40. Retrieved December 11, 2019 – via Newspapers.com.
  14. ↑ "Beaver College advertisement". New Castle Herald. October 28, 1911. p. 6. Retrieved December 11, 2019 – via Newspapers.com.
  15. ↑ The Frances Shimer Record ... Frances Shimer School. 1912. p. 32.
  16. ↑ "Mr. T. E. Patteson". Edmonton Journal. April 15, 1950. p. 28. Retrieved December 11, 2019 – via Newspapers.com.
  17. ↑ Yale University Obituary Record (1950-1951): 151.
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