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Amy Marcy Beach (September 5, 1867 –
December 27, 1944), was an United States|American
pianist and composer of classical music. She was
the first successful female American composer.
Many of her compositions and performances were
under the name Mrs. H.H.A. Beach.

She was born Amy Marcy Cheney in Henniker, New
Hampshire. A child prodigy, she composed her first
song at the age of 4.  She made her professional
debut in Boston in 1883 and shortly thereafter
appeared as a soloist with the Boston Symphony
Orchestra. Following her marriage in 1885 to Dr.
Henry H.A. Beach, a Boston surgeon, however, she
largely stopped performing (at his request) and
devoted herself instead to composition. After her
husband died in 1910, she toured Europe as a
pianist, playing her own compositions. She
returned to America in 1914, where she spent time
at the MacDowell Colony in Peterborough, New
Hampshire. She died in New York City.

Her compositions include the Gaelic Symphony
(1893), the Mass (music)|Mass in E flat Major, a
piano concerto, a quantity of chorus|choral music,
chamber music, piano music, and the opera Cabildo
(1932). She was most popular, however, for her
songs.

On July 9, 2000 at Boston's famous Hatch Shell,
the Boston Pops paid tribute to Amy Beach. Her
name was added to the granite wall on "The Shell".
It joins 86 other composers such as Bach, Handel,
Chopin, Debussy, MacDowell and Beethoven. Amy
Beach is the only woman composer on the granite
wall.

== References ==

*Adrienne Fried Block, Amy Beach, Passionate
Victorian: The Life and Work of an American
Composer, 1867-1944 (Oxford University Press,
1998)
*Amy Beach, The Sea-Fairies: Opus 59, edited by
Andrew Thomas Kuster (Madison, WI: A-R Editions,
1999)