Biography of
Elinor Remick Warren
Page 2

Luck was with Elinor when her parents chose Kathryn Montreville Cocke to be her first music teacher. Miss Cocke had received her training at the New England Conservatory of Music and used a method devised by Evelyn Fletcher Copp, a highly successful pedagogue who applied the principles of kindergarten teaching to music.

In 1912, Elinor's family took her to England and the Continent for seven months. The impressionable child never forgot the experiences of that trip. Her diary is replete with superlatives about the musical performances to which she was treated. Prior to leaving, she had studied the Wagner "ring" cycle with her mother, and the performances of Wagner operas she heard in Munich and Paris received ecstatic attention in her trip diary. "'Siegfried,' which we saw last evening," she wrote, was perfectly glorious and I enjoyed it much more than I can say. The last scene of the last act -- was -- !!!! when Brunnhilde sang so gloriously."

Kathryn Cocke and a group of younger pianists, fresh from European study who assisted her, remained Elinor's music teachers until her graduation from high school. By this time, she had developed into a skillful pianist and had continued composing, primarily for solo voice and chorus.

During her sophomore year in high school Elinor began the study of theory and harmony with a well-known local composer, Gertrude Ross. Ross urged her to send some of the music she was writing to New York publishers. Elinor chose one of her vocal solos, A Song of June, which she sent to G Schirmer. She was surprised when the company sent her a contract.

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