TUESDAY MUSICAL CLUB HISTORY

     Tuesday Musical Club (TMC) was founded in 1889 as an outlet for women musicians whose social status prevented them from doing anything professionally.  These prominent Pittsburgh musicians included Julia Morgan Harding, Kate Cassatt McKnight, Eleanor Gillespie Magee, and Anne S. Phillips.  They organized private recitals of classical music, which were initially held in the rooms of the Mozart Club in the Hostetter Building on Fourth Avenue, by permission of Henry Clay Frick, a trustee of the Mozart Club. After a year, the meetings and performances were moved to the music room of Mrs. Magee's home "The Maples," on the present site of Magee-Womens Hospital.  The Club was originally called the "Tuesday Afternoon Musicale." Other founding members were Mrs. Christian I. McKee, Elizabeth Webster, Emily and Frances McCreery, Ella Dravo Stuart, Mrs. John Harper, Mrs. John G. Holmes, Mrs. O.D. Thompson, Mrs. Enoch Rauh, Mrs. Lawrence Litchfield, Mrs. Alexander McKaig, and Mary Bakewell.

     In 1902, non-performing music lovers were admitted as "associate members," resulting in larger audiences and more formal presentations.By this time, the name had become Tuesday Musical Club.  The Schenley Hotel, the Playhouse (formerly the German Club), the Twentieth Century Club, and the Allegheny County Soldiers and Sailors' Memorial were some of the buildings utilized by TMC for its concerts during the first quarter of the twentieth century.

     In 1927, under the guidance of President Birdelle Earhart, TMC initiated a plan to build a performance hall for its recitals, a hall to be dedicated to Pittsburgh's most beloved composer, Stephen Collins Foster (1826-1864).  A site for TMC's building was offered by Chancellor John G. Bowman for placement on the new campus of the University of Pittsburgh.  A ten-year campaign, augmented by the work of the Stephen C. Foster Memorial Committee and Josiah K. Lilly, industrialist of Indianapolis, Indiana, and Foster aficionado and collector, resulted in the erection of the Stephen Foster Memorial.  It is the repository for Mr. Lilly's exquisite collection of Stephen C. Foster artifacts and personal effects. The Stephen Foster Memorial has been the headquarters of Tuesday Musical Club since its dedication June 2, 1937. The photograph shows the president and all living past presidents of Tuesday Musical Club at the dedication ceremony. Standing -- Mrs. Charles E. Mayhew,  Mrs. T.C. Donovan,  Miss Elizabeth M. Davison,  Mrs. F.F. Rohrer,  Mrs. H. Talbot Peterson,  Mrs. W.C. Dierks,  Mrs. William F. Knox (in office),  Mrs. E. W. Flaccus,  Mrs. Phillip Lee Crittenden,  Mrs. Arthur B. Siviter,  Mrs. David V. Murdoch.  Sitting -- Mrs. Joseph W. Marsh,  Miss Julia Morgan Harding (First President)  and Mrs. Will Earhart.

     The Stephen Foster Memorial is now the home of the "Center for American Music," under the direction of Dr. Deane L. Root.  A part of the University of Pittsburgh Library System, this center was established in 1996 to expand and document knowledge of American music and the role it plays here and abroad.

     The Club was incorporated in 1921 and awarded its first scholarship in 1928.  See Scholarship opportunities.

     In the fall of 1939, after working on Tuesday Musical Club's first home-based opera production of "Iolanthe" (directed by Anthony S. Caputo),  Mrs. John Byerly, Mrs. Robert Wickersham, Mrs. Winthrop I. Collins, Mrs. Carolyn Hunt Mahaffey, and Mrs. Rowland Pease were inspired to form the Pittsburgh Opera Society. Pittsburgh Opera presented its inaugural performance of Offenbach's "Les Contes d'Hoffmann" at the Carnegie Music Hall on March 15, 1940. (This production was also directed by Anthony Caputo, who died March 21, 1999 and is credited in his obituary as the founder of the Pittsburgh Opera Society.) Members of Tuesday Musical Club also started the Pittsburgh Concert Society and The Renaissance and Baroque Society of Pittsburgh.

     The Club began to admit men in 1976. Its String Ensemble is currently 30% male.

The photograph shows President Sandra Greciano and all available past presidents at the Tuesday Musical Club Centennial celebration in 1989. Standing --Sandra Greciano, Marianne Kor, Lois Herbst, Mary Jane Harvey, Nancy Greenwood, Alice Kalla.  Sitting --  Bette Pruett, Bertha Hoffrichter, Lucy Millard, Mary Ann Halteman, Lucretia Marracino.
Unavailable for photograph --Betty Bothwell, Marie Peterson, Pauline Hoey, Isabel McGregor.

     In 1992, the Club became the proud owner of a Steinway concert grand piano, purchased in part with a generous grant from the Vira I. Heinz Endowment. It resides in the sanctuary of St. Andrew's Episcopal Church in the Highland Park neighborhood of Pittsburgh.  This church is the main venue for Tuesday Musical Club performances.

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