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Biographical Note - Ruth Crawford Seeger
| Date | Event |
|---|---|
| 1901 July 3 | Ruth Porter Crawford born in East Liverpool, Ohio, to Methodist minister Clark Crawford and Clara Graves Crawford |
| 1913 | Began taking private piano lessons |
| 1914-1918 June | Attended Duval High School in Jacksonville, Florida, where she wrote stories and poems for The Oracle, the school yearbook |
| circa 1919-1921 | Taught piano lessions as a junior teacher in Bertha Foster's School of Musical Art in Jacksonville |
| 1921-1924 | Studied piano and harmony, music history, pedagogy, and compostition at Chicago's American Conservatory of Music, receiving her graduate diploma in 1923 and her bachelor's degree in music theory, harmony, and orchestration in 1924 |
| 1924 May 31 | Performed her Kaleidoscopic Changes on an Original Theme at Kimball Hall, Chicago |
| 1924 Fall | Began piano lessons with Djane Lavoie Herz |
| 1924-1929 | Composed Five Preludes for Piano, The Adventures of Tom Thumb, Four Preludes for Piano, Violin and Piano Sonata, Suite for Small Orchestra, Suite for Winds and Piano, and Suite No. 2 for Strings and Piano Taught at the American Conservatory of Music on the piano staff and in the children's department Tutored Vivian Fine in harmony and theory |
| 1925 | Met Dane Rudhyar and Henry Cowell |
| 1925 December 13 | Professional debut with performance of Second Prelude by Gitta Gradova at Aeolian Hall, New York |
| 1926 | Hired as piano teacher for Carl Sandburg's children, becoming an informal member of the Sandburg family Won the Sigma Alpha Iota national composition prize for Five Preludes for Piano and the pedagogical work The Adventures of Tom Thumb |
| 1926 February 26 | Premiere of Sonata for Violin and Piano, sponsored by the League of Composers in New York on a program that included works by Aaron Copland and Marc Blitzstein |
| 1926-1929 | Taught piano and harmony at Elmhurst College, Illinois |
| 1927 | Received master's degree from the American Conservatory of Music, graduating summa cum laude Arranged four songs for Carl Sandberg's The American Songbag |
| 1927-1929 | Studied composition and orchestration at the Juilliard Chicago Extension with Adolf Weidig |
| 1928 October | Piano Preludes nos. 6-9 published in New Music |
| 1929 | Composed Suite No. 2 for Strings and Piano Composed "Lolipop-a-Papa" under the pseudonym of Fred Karlan |
| 1929 Summer | Attended the MacDowell Colony in Peterborough, New Hampshire, and composed Five Songs on Sandburg Poems |
| 1929 September | Moved into music patron Blanche Walton's New York City apartment |
| 1929 November | Met and began composition lessons with Charles Seeger |
| 1930-1933 | Awarded Guggenheim grant to study composition in Berlin, Paris, and Budapest. She became the first woman to receive a musical composition fellowship |
| 1930-1933 | Set a second group of Sandburg poems to music: Three Songs on Poems of Carl Sandburg. Also composed Diaphonic Suite no. 2 for Bassoon and Cello, Diaphonic Suite no. 3 for Two Clarinets, Diaphonic Suite no. 1 for Solo Oboe or Flute, Three Chants for Women's Chorus, Piano Study in Mixed Accents, String Quartet 1931, and Diaphonic Suite no. 4 for oboe (or Viola) and Cello |
| circa 1931 | Joined the Composers' Collective in New York |
| 1932 October 2 | Married Charles Seeger |
| 1933 August 15 | Michael Seeger born in New York City (died August 7, 2009) |
| 1933 November 13 | Premiere performance of String Quartet at the New School of Social Research |
| 1935 June 17 | Margaret (Peggy) Seeger born in New York City |
| 1937 | Barbara Seeger born in Washington, D.C. |
| 1939 | Commissioned by CBS to write Rissolty, Rossolty for inclusion in its School of the Air program |
| 1941 | Transcribed 205 of the folk tunes in John A. and Alan Lomax's Our Singing Country |
| 1943 | Penelope Seeger (Cohen) born in Washington, DC (died 1993) |
| 1947 | Created the voice and piano settings for the Lomaxes' Folk Song USA Co-edited with Duncan Emrich and Charles Seeger the unpublished 1001 Folksongs |
| 1948 | Published American Folk Songs for Children in Home, School, and Nursery School: a Book For Children, Parents, and Teachers |
| 1950 | Published Animal Folk Songs for Children |
| 1952 | Composed Suite for Wind Quintet |
| 1953 November | Published American Folk Songs for Christmas |
| 1953 November 19 | Died of cancer in Chevy Chase, Maryland |