William Albert Beller


William Albert Beller was an American concert pianist and professor of music at Marquette University and Columbia University. He was deemed a musical prodigy when he was 4 years old. He had also taught piano at the Bronx House Music School in the 1930s.

Life

In 1916, Beller won scholarship at the Chicago Musical College, where, in 1917, he received a Senior Diploma with the Diamond Medal for Excellence in Scholarship. In 1918, he received a Graduate Medal; and in 1921, a Bachelor of Music degree with a prize of a grand piano. At some point, upon one of his graduations, he received a gold medal.
Beller studied piano for two years with Arthur L.J. Frazier, with Howard Wells in Chicago, with Tobias Matthay, and, in 1926, with Josef Lhevinne in New York City under a Juilliard fellowship. In 1925, while in Chicago, Beller worked for Lyon & Healy and was a Duo-Art artist.
When Beller arrived in New York, he was represented by NBC Artists Service, George W. Engles, managing director, RCA Building, New York City.
From 1930 to 1935 as a visiting professor, Beller taught piano in Dallas, Denton, and Fort Worth during the summers. The Dallas Conservatory was essentially a collection of music teachers led by Carl Wiesemann in the 1930s who taught from the Terrill School. In the summer of 1934, Beller and Joseph Brinkman gave a four-week series of lecture-recitals on Bach, Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, Schumann, Chopin, Brahms, Debussy, and Ravel as part of a graduate seminar at the University of Michigan. Beller also taught piano in Hartford, Ann Arbor, and Chicago. Beller also maintained a private studio at Carnegie Hall.

Students

Columbia University

Honors