“Music Is My Life,”
the title of the book Adella Prentiss Hughes wrote, expresses her life
work in four words. She devoted herself to the promotion of musical interests
in the greater Cleveland area for more than 40 years.
Adella Prentiss was born on November 29, 1869, at the Prentiss home at
East 9th Street and Chester Avenue in Cleveland. However, she spend most
of her life in Cleveland Heights. As a young woman she attended Vassar
College. Later she studied piano in Berlin, Germany. She thought of becoming
a concert pianist at one time. She attained such skill that several times
in emergencies she had the pleasure of accompanying such artists a Madam
Schumann-Heink and Fritz Kreisler.
Mrs. Hughes was a direct descendant of Moses Warren, one of the surveyors
in Moses Cleaveland’s party. She believed her love of music came
from her Grandfather Rouse who sang in the choir of the First Baptist
Church for many years. Her interest in civic affairs, she liked to think,
came from her Grandmother Rouse who founded an orphanage in New York City
and worked during the Civil War with what is now the Red Cross. Whatever
came to Mrs. Hughes from her ancestry, she made more than a splendid record
for herself.
Mrs. Hughes promoted her first Cleveland concert in 1898. A news item
or a program that carried “Adella Prentiss Hughes Presents”
meant good music to the music lovers of the greater Cleveland area. She
made it possible for people of this region to hear all the great musical
artists of that day. The walls of her living room on Kenilworth Lane were
covered with autographed pictures of her friends in the music world. The
pictures may be seen now at Severance Hall.
The first series of three symphony concerts of visiting
orchestras that Mrs. Hughes presented went so well that she set up a series
of five the next year. “Why should there not be a Cleveland Symphony
Orchestra since people are interested in that kind of music?” she
thought. In 1915 she organized the Musical Arts Association which leading
citizens of that time enjoyed. Such well known names as Severance, Norton,
Eells, Mather, Blossom, and Halle were included. Today that organization
continues to support the Cleveland Symphony Orchestra. “Sokoloff
might make a fine conductor for an Orchestra of Cleveland,” she
suggested.
It was on December 11, 1915 that the Cleveland
Orchestra gave its first performance. There were fifty-four musicians
under the direction of Mr. Sokoloff. James Rodgers, a critic for The Plain
Dealer, said, “Conductor Sokoloff succeeded in getting an orchestra
of adequate size and excellent quality.” This concert came about
in an unusual way. Archie Bell as music critic of the Cleveland News was
approached by Father John Powers of St. Ann’s Parish. He wanted
to arrange for a benefit concert for his parish. He loved to use his tenor
voice in song and knew that music was attractive to many people. Mr. Bell
told Father Powers that he should talk to Mrs. Hughes, who could help
him. The concert was arranged to take place in Gray’s Central Armory.
The ladies of the parish sold tickets. Father Powers sang several numbers
and the concert was a great success.
The Musical Arts Association took over the support of the orchestra in
1918. Its first season was delayed by the flu epidemic of that year but
concerts have been given each year since, first in the Masonic Auditorium
at the East 36th Street and Euclid Avenue, and then the splendid Severance
Hall.
Mrs. Hughes, having the orchestra well launched,
turned her attention to the children of Cleveland who would make the future
audiences. She persuaded the Cleveland Board of Education to employ Russell
Morgan as a supervisor of instrumental music. In time Lillian Baldwin
came to the Cleveland Schools as Supervisor of Music Appreciation. Mrs.
Hughes obtained the cooperation of the Cleveland and Suburban School Boards
so that children’s concerts could be given during school hours.
Mrs. Hughes and Miss Baldwin watched with great pleasure as hundreds of
children poured out of streetcars in the early years, and then buses,
into the concerts they had planned. In the season of 1956-1957 children’s
concerts reached their peak, as 60,000 children heard a symphony that
year.
Mrs. Hughes was the first woman in America to establish and manage a symphony
orchestra. Ill health forced her to give up active work in 1945. She died
on August 2, 1950. This distinguished resident of Cleveland Heights had
achieved her purpose of interesting people in this area in the music she
loved so very much.
|