Edward MacDowell was a celebrated American composer in the nineteenth century. He was born in New York City on December 18th, 1860. He grew up in a Quaker household, the son of Thomas MacDowell and Frances “Fanny” Knapp MacDowell.
Edward began piano lessons at the age of eight, and went on to enroll in the Paris Conservatoire. He then went on to Germany to continue his studies at the Frankfurt Conservatory. In Germany, MacDowell met Franz List. He played his own Piano Concerto in A Minor, Op. 15 for Liszt. Liszt was impressed and was instrumental in having MacDowell’s First Modern Suite, Op. 10, performed and then published by a prestigious firm in Leipzig.