Arthur Shepherd

This article is about the American composer and conductor. For the English archdeacon, see Arthur Shepherd (priest). For the British politician, see Arthur Lewis Shepherd. For a Desperate Housewives character, see Art Shepherd.

Arthur Shepherd (February 19, 1880 – January 12, 1958) was an American composer and conductor in the 20th century.

Arthur Shepherd
Burr McIntosh Monthly, September, 1908
Born	(1880-02-19)February 19, 1880 Paris, Idaho, USA
Died	January 12, 1958(1958-01-12) (aged 77) Cleveland, Ohio, USA
Occupation(s)	Composer, Orchestra Conductor and Professor of Music

Life and career

Shepherd was born in Paris, Idaho, into a Mormon family. His family loved to sing and his father, William N. B. Shepherd, wrote the hymn “Give Us Room That We May Dwell.”^[1] Shepherd performed with both the Paris Brass Band and the Bear Lake Stake Choir.^[1]

Shepherd entered the New England Conservatory when he was only twelve years old. After graduating with honors and as president of his class,^[1] Shepherd returned to his family who had moved to Salt Lake City, Utah, and led a local orchestra for six years.^[1] In 1901, he married Hattie Hooper Jennings.^[1]

After some encouragement, he returned to the east and took a teaching position at the New England Conservatory where he studied under Charles F. Dennée, Percy Goetschius, Carl Faelten, and George W. Chadwick.^[1] He briefly served as a bandmaster during World War I. His marriage fell apart after his return from Europe^[1] and he moved with his children to Cleveland, Ohio. He took a job as the Assistant Director of the Cleveland Orchestra.

In 1922 he married Grazella Shepherd.^[1]

In 1927 he returned to teaching at the Western Reserve University in Cleveland. He retired in 1950 and died in 1958, after a failed operation at a Cleveland hospital.^[2] He composed over 100 works, including symphonies, string quartets and songs.^[3]

Shepherd was a Latter-day Saint.^[4] Although around the time of World War I, his divorce and remarriage, he distanced himself from the faith, he maintained a faith in God and his connections to the church and his people.^[1] His work made reference to the geography and music of the Latter-day Saints.^[1]

Awards

• 1905 Paderewski Prize for Overture Joyeuse (orchestral work performed by the New York Symphony conducted by Walter Damrosch
• 1909 First prize in the National Federal of Music Clubs for Sonata for the Pianoforte

Works

• 1904 Capriccio (for piano)
• 1904 Etude (for piano)
• 1905 Overture Joyeuse
• 1907 The Lord Hath Brought Again Zion (choral work with text from Doctrine and Covenants)
• 1909 Five Songs on Poems by James Russell Lowell
• 1909 Sonata for the Pianoforte
• 1913 The City in the Sea (cantata)
• 1927 Horizons (symphony)

Influences

His influences include Percy Goetschius and George W. Chadwick, Arthur Farwell, French Impressionists and Englishman, Vaughan Williams.

Selected works

• Ouverture Joyeuse
• Horizons
• Triptych
• Piano Quintet
• Matin Song
• He Came All So Still
• The Lost Child
• Nocturn
• Solitude
• Where Loveliness Keeps House
• Two-Step
• Exotic Dance No. 1
• From a Mountain lake
• Gigue Fantasque

^[5]