Prudence Maria Neff (June 9, 1887 – December 23, 1949) was an American pianist and music teacher, based in Alabama as a young woman, and in Chicago for the rest of her career.

Early life

Prudence Neff was born in Nebraska City, Nebraska, and raised in Chicago, the daughter of Anton Neff and Theresa Meyer Neff. Her father, who worked for the railroad, was born in Switzerland. At the Chicago Musical College, she studied piano with Glenn Dillard Gunn, and

music theory Music theory is the study of the practices and possibilities of music. ''The Oxford Companion to Music'' describes three interrelated uses of the term "music theory". The first is the "rudiments", that are needed to understand music notation (ke ...

with

Adolphe Brune Adolphe Brune was a French artist born in Paris in 1802 and painted religious subjects, portraits, still life, and mural compositions. He studied under Gros, and made his debut at the Salon in 1833 with an 'Adoration of the Magi.' He was subse ...

and Felix Borowski. Her "All-American" education was a selling point for Neff as a performer during the 1910s.

Career

Neff was a concert pianist who toured the United States with Hugo Heermann and

Maggie Teyte Dame Maggie Teyte (born Margaret Tate; 17 April 188826 May 1976) was an English operatic soprano and interpreter of French art song. Early years Margaret Tate was born in Wolverhampton, England, one of ten children of Jacob James Tate, a succ ...

. She taught piano at Englewood Musical College in Chicago as a young woman, and at the Southern School of Musical Art in Birmingham, Alabama. In 1914, she gave the first performance of Felix Borowski's ''Piano Concerto in D Minor'', with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. She also played with the Russian Symphony Orchestra of New York. In 1915, she won a Southern regional piano contest, held by the National Federation of Music Clubs (NFMC) in Memphis. She represented the Birmingham Music Study Club at the NFMC national meeting in Los Angeles in 1915. "Prudence Neff has within a few years attained a degree of success rarely reached by the young aspirant to musical honors," said ''The Musical Monitor.'' She chaired the program committee of the NFMC in 1917, when its national biennial meeting was held in Birmingham. Also in 1917, she gave concerts on the lyceum circuit with her violinist husband. After her first marriage ended, she moved back to Chicago, and taught piano there at the Glenn Dillard Gunn School of Music. She appeared on vaudeville programs in 1919. She continued performing through the 1920s and 1930s, often as an accompanist; she also made piano roll recordings, and gave concerts for radio. In 1933 she directed a choir of 30 voices in Palos Park.

Personal life

In 1915, Neff married a fellow music teacher, Chicago-born Bohemian violinist Robert Dolejsi. They sometimes performed together in concerts. After they divorced, she married Wade H. Thomas; he died in 1933. She died in 1949, in Chicago, at the age of 62.Prudence Neff
''Pianola: Saving the Music of Yesterday''

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Neff, Prudence 1887 births 1949 deaths People from Nebraska City, Nebraska American pianists American women pianists American music educators