Life and Achievements

"What a vast power for good this distinguished artist has been."
--John C. Freund, Musical America,
October 16, 1915

"Listen to Maud Powell's violin.  If you want to be transported to a heaven of delight by the pathos of a simple sweet song, -- if you want to feel the uplift which an evening of aesthetic enjoyment gives, or if you want to feel a thrill of patriotism because a great, modest, unaffected, true and vibrant talent has been born in the Western Hemisphere--in short, if you want to find out how much can be got out of a fiddle, go -- listen to -- Maud Powell."  -- Victor Talking Machine Company

MAUD POWELL, AMERICAN VIOLINIST
1867-1920

Maud Powell was the first native-born American violinist of either gender to achieve international recognition, ranking with Camilla Urso, Lady Halle (Wilma Norman-Neruda), Eugene Ysaye and Fritz Kreisler.  She was America's first great master of the violin and was considered to be one of the greatest violinists in the world.  Her playing is as matchless by today's standards as it was then, setting a standard for violin playing which endures to this day.

Why should you know about Maud Powell? 

Explore these pages and find out!  You will be surprised!

New York critic W. J. Henderson penned the following parody of Leigh Hunt's "Abou Ben Adhem," published in Musical America in December 1905:

Abou Maud Powell, may her tribe increase,
Awoke one night from a deep dream of peace,
And saw within the moonlight in her room,
Making it green, just like a bank in bloom,
A critic writing phrases worn and old.
Exceeding praise had made Maud Powell bold,
And to the presence in the room she said,
"What writest thou?"  The vision raised its head,
And with a look of secrecy and stealth
Answered, "The names of those who get the wealth."
"And is mine one?" she faltered.  "Nay, not so,"
Replied the scribbler.  Maud then spake more low,
But cheerily still, and said, "Before we part
Write me as one who doth respect her Art."
The critic wrote and vanished.  The next night
He came again with a great awakening light
And showed the names whom love of Art had blessed:
And lo!  Maud Powell's name led all the rest.

"In Mme. Powell . . . are the power and the fascination of an almost disembodied artistry.  There is the music, the violin -- and a transporting pleasure."  -- H. T. Parker, Boston Evening Transcript, April 1907

"She belongs--right at the top-notch of the representative list of masculine players and equal to any of them in the artistic rendition of every important classic or modern work of which the literature of the violin may boast." -- Gustav Saenger, editor of The Musical Observer, August 1913