Mildred Weston
Mildred Weston Rogers was an American composer best known for a number of children's pedagogical piano suites.
Not to be confused with American poet Mildred Weston
Biography
Weston was born in Gallitzin, Pennsylvania, to William and Anna Weston. She graduated from the Pennsylvania College for Women in Pittsburgh in 1913, studying under T. Carl Whitmer. She pursued further studies at the New England Conservatory of Music.After college, Weston taught music to kindergarteners at Miss Simonson's School in Pittsburgh. This experience informed the composition of a number of programmatic and pedagogical suites for piano, many of which were published by the Arthur P. Schmidt company.
Weston married William G. Rogers, an author and newspaper editor, on Oct 5, 1934 in Springfield.
Selected works
Her works include:Piano
- Ten Fingers At the Zoo
- Under the Christmas Tree
- About Fairies
- In an Apple Orchard
- Slumber Song: Pyrenees Folk Tune
- Sandman
- Toys: A Suite for the Piano This suite was in the first grade of the New England Conservatory's piano teaching curriculum in 1929.
- Red Riding Hood
- Under an April Sky
- Under the Christmas Tree The eleven pieces are: Hobby Horse, A Doll That Goes to Sleep,The Tinkle-Tinkle Box, In a Little White Cradle, The Big Red Drum, Wooden Soldiers, Taps, The Little Pop-Gun, Jumping Jack, Candle Lighting Time, and Twinkle, Twinkle, Christmas Tree.
- Goldilocks
- The Village Green
- Cinderella: A Fairy Tale
- Swaying Willows: Novelty Dance on Black Keys
Prose
- Carnival Crossroads: The Story of Times Square
- music criticism for New Yorker magazine
Vocal
- Carol to the Child
- Holy Family Carol