Agnes Gardner Eyre | |
---|---|
Born | Minnesota | December 10, 1881
Died | July 16, 1950 Fresno, California | (aged 68)
Other names | Gardner Eyre, Agnes de Jahn |
Occupation | Pianist |
Relatives | Gunnar Jahn (brother-in-law) |
Agnes Gardner Eyre de Jahn (December 10, 1881 – July 16, 1950) was an American pianist, composer, and piano teacher, a student of Theodor Leschetizky.
Eyre was born in Ortonville, Minnesota,[1] the daughter of Lewis John Eyre and Agnes Augusta Gardner Eyre (later Norrish).[2][3][4] Her father was a salesman, born in England. She studied composition and harmony with George Whitefield Chadwick and Edward Shippen Barnes at the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston,[3] and for four years with Theodor Leschetizky in Vienna.[5]
Eyre was a concert pianist; she toured in Europe, Great Britain, and North America, and appeared with violinist Jan Kubelik[6][7] and sopranos Corinne Rider-Kelsey,[8] Abby Beecher Longyear[9] and Ella Russell.[5] She performed at the 1905 Proms.[10] "She played with really brilliant success," said a reviewer in Santa Barbara in 1906.[11]
As Gardner Eyre,[12] she composed songs, hymns, and works for piano, including "Love Radiant", "Some Day", "Adoration", "God is Ever Near", "Be Thou Our Guide",[13] "Were I a Pirate of the Sea"[14] "Drifting",[12] and "Beyond the Mist".[15]
Eyre taught piano students at the Institute of Musical Art in New York,[16] and in California in her later years.[3] She attended the 1927 convention of the California Music Teachers Association.[17] In 1931, she was guest soloist at the first concert of the Fresno Philharmonic Orchestra.[18] She was a judge for the 1938 National Piano Playing Tournament, sponsored by the National Guild of Piano Teachers.[19]
During World War I, Eyre served in the National League for Women's Service, with the rank of lieutenant. She organized an auxiliary transportation unit in Scarsdale, New York.[20] She was a member of the New York Antivivisection Society.[21]
Eyre married Norwegian-born Fredrik Wexelsen Jahn in 1909, in San Francisco.[22] They divorced before 1930. Her brother-in-law was economist Gunnar Jahn. She died in 1950, aged 68 years, in Fresno, California.[1]