Edward Joseph Collins

Edward Joseph Collins (November 10, 1886 – December 1, 1951) was an American pianist, conductor and composer of classical music in a neoromantic style.

Collins was born in Joliet, Illinois, into an Irish family – his father was from County Meath and his mother from Belfast. From age 14, he studied with Rudolph Ganz in Chicago, and in 1906 went with Ganz to Berlin, where he studied performance and composition at the Berlin Hochschule für Musik under Max Bruch and Engelbert Humperdinck. Upon graduation, he had a successful concert piano debut in Berlin. He returned to the United States in 1912 and toured with the contralto Ernestine Schumann-Heink. He was an assistant conductor with the Century Opera Company in New York City and with the Bayreuth Festival in Germany.

During World War I, Collins served in the U.S. Army (88th Division of the Intelligence Unit in France) as an interpreter and entertained the troops as pianist. From Private he rose up to the rank of Lieutenant during the war.

After the war he returned to Chicago and joined 1919 the faculty of Chicago Musical College as one of the principal piano teachers. Collins married a voice student, Frieda Mayer, whose father, Oscar, owned a meatpacking company and was well to do. Collins and his wife had four children namely Dorothy Louise, Marianna Louise, Louise Joan and Edward Joseph junior. Having married into a family of wealth, they lived in the Mayer residence on Sheridan Road in Chicago.

He later joined the faculty of the American Conservatory of Music. He died in Chicago, Illinois in 1951.

Collins belonged to a group of conservative Chicago composers whose influence did not reach far beyond the city. His music includes twelve major orchestral works (incl. three piano concertos), a secular cantata, an opera, several chamber works, more than 20 songs and a dozen piano solo and duo scores. For a number of years he was preoccupied with his Irish heritage and wrote several long scores for large orchestra involving traditional Irish melodies.

While at Chicago Music College, Collins met and married, on July 21, 1920, a voice student, Frieda Johanna Mayer (November 17, 1889 Chicago, Illinois - December 7, 1965 Birmingham, Michigan), daughter of meat-packing magnate Oscar Mayer.

Stage

Cantata

Orchestral works

Chamber music

Other