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(b Milford, ME, May 26, 1853; d Minneapolis, MN, Dec 12, 1924). American singer, teacher, conductor, and composer. Patton studied voice under F.S. Davenport, J. Whitney, and W.W. Davis. He later received instruction from Achille Errani and Dudley Buck in New York. From 1877 to 1882 he gave concerts and sang tenor in oratorios, as well as being a chorus trainer in Maine from 1875. He organized the Handel Association in Bangor, Maine (1877). After touring the Mid-West in 1883, he moved to Minneapolis to be a concert singer and teacher. From 1886 to 1889 he served as vocal instructor at Hamline University. In 1890 he founded the Philharmonic Club, which he conducted until 1894. One of the organizers of the Minnesota State Music Teachers Association, he twice served as president. His compositions include the operettas The Gallant Garroter (1882) and La Fianza (...

[Gomidas Vartabed; Soghomonian, Soghomon]

(b Kütahya, Turkey, Oct 8, 1869; d Paris, Oct 22, 1935). Armenian composer, ethnomusicologist, choral conductor, singer and teacher. One of the first Armenians to have a classical Western musical education, as well as instruction in the music of his own people, he laid the foundations for a distinctive national style in his many songs and choruses, all of which are deeply influenced by the folk and church traditions of Armenia. His work on Armenian folksong is also of musicological importance.

Robert Atayan, revised by Aram Kerovpyan

Both of his parents (his father Gevorg Soghomonian was a cobbler) had gifts for music and poetry; in 1881, however, the boy was orphaned and sent to Armenia to study at the Gevork’ian Theological Seminary in Vagharshapat (now Edjmiadzine), and was ordained as a celibate priest in 1894, being given the name Komitas (a 7th-century Catholicos who was also a hymn composer). There his beautiful voice and his musical talents attracted notice, and under Sahak Amatuni’s guidance he mastered the theory and practice of Armenian liturgical singing. He also made decisive contact with folksong, to the collection and study of which he gave himself wholeheartedly. When he had only just learnt Armenian modern notation he set about recording the songs of the Ararat valley peasants and immigrant Armenians of other regions. Although he had no knowledge of European music theory, he harmonized these songs for performance with a student choir at the academy. His earliest surviving collection of folk melodies dates from ...

(b Stuttgart, Dec 9, 1796; d Stuttgart, Aug 1, 1857). German composer, pianist, singer, conductor, and teacher. The youngest of seven children born to the composer Johann Rudolf Zumsteeg, she studied the piano with G. Schick and theory with Wilhelm Sutor. Gifted with a fine alto voice, Zumsteeg was soon singing and performing on the piano (e.g. at the Stuttgart Museumskonzerte) though she primarily pursued a career as a composer. As an adult Zumsteeg was active as a teacher and mixed with leading musicians and poets in Wurttemberg. Her literary ties reflected an interest in the lied, which formed the basis of her creative reputation. She also wrote several piano works in her early years, such as the Trois polonaises, published in 1821 and favorably reviewed in the Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung, and a few sacred choral music compositions. She occupied a central position in the musical life of Stuttgart as a teacher of voice and piano and as a leading member of the Verein für Klassische Kirchenmusik. Additionally, she conducted a women's choir of about 30 members, and on special occasions, such as the annual Schiller celebrations in Stuttgart, she performed with a double-sized women’s choir. Public concerts with mixed choirs, however, were conducted by men like Peter Joseph von Lindpaintner, the court conductor of the royal chapel. Zumsteeg also directed oratorios and operas in private houses, the performances of which she led from the piano. She was an excellent and much sought after music teacher....