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Born: c1889 - New Jersey, USA (?)
Died: April 25, 1959 - Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA |
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The American pianist, teacher, composer amd lecturer, Elizabeth A. Gest, was the daughter of daughter of Alexander P. and Kate K. Gest. Elizabeth studied in the leading American Conservatories as the Peabody Institue in Baltimore, Maryland, the Institute of Musical Art in New York, with private teachers in the USA and with Nadia Boulanger in Paris.
Elizabeth Gest was active in Phildelphia. She taught at the Settlement Music School here, Ursinus College and the Shipley School, Bryn Mawr. For several years she has conducted the Junior Department of The tude. During the 1940’s and the 1950’s she was on the jury of several music competitions. She had a studio at 1714 Chestnut St. in Phildalphia.
Her compositions, most of them for piano, are both original and appealing. Elizabeth Gest also edited and arranged for piano many works by other composers, including François Couperin; Boccherini, Domenico Scarlatti; J.S. Bach, Haydn, Mozart, L.v. Beethoven, Johannes Brahms, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov; Isaac Albéniz, François Joseph Gossec; César Cui; Aleksandr Tikhonovich Grechaninov, etc.
The author of many books and articles, her book Keyboard Harmony for Juniors, was among her better known works. Elizabeth Gest was a member of the Art Alliance, the New Century Club, the National Guild of Piano Teachers and many other teacher groups.
Elizabeth A. Gest died on April 25, 1959 in Lankenau Hospital. She was 70 and lived at Alden Park Manor, Germantown. Surviving are a sister, Mrs. Samuel R. T. Very, and two brothers, Alexander P. and John B. |
