Thomas Whitney Surette
Thomas Whitney Surette was an American musician, composer and teacher.
Early life
Born in Concord, Massachusetts, the son of Louis Athanase Surette, an Acadian commission merchant from Nova Scotia, and Frances Jane Shattuck.Career
Surette studied piano with Arthur Foote and composition with John Knowles Paine at Harvard University from 1889 to 1892, but failed to obtain a degree. In 1907, he was appointed music reader at Columbia University. In 1915, he founded Concord Summer School of Music, which operated until 1938. In 1921, he was appointed Director of Music at Bryn Mawr College.Surette published the following: The Appreciation of Music, and, on a more elevated plane, Course of Study on the Development of Symphonic Music and Music and Life ; He wrote two light operas: "Priscilla, or The Pilgrim’s Proxy", after Longfellow, and "The Eve of Saint Agnes", as well as a romantic opera, "Cascabel, or The Broken Tryst".
Surette was also largely responsible for the vogue of music appreciation courses that swept the country and spilled over into the British Isles.