Woman of the Century/Emma R. Steiner

STEINER, Miss Emma R., musical composer and orchestral conductor, was born in Baltimore, Md. Her father, Colonel Frederick Steiner, was well known in commercial and military circles. She was a precocious musician, but her family did not encourage her in the development of her talents. The only instruction she ever received in music was a three-month course under Professor Frank Mitler, while she was a student in the Southern Institute. She is a self-educated musician. She went to Chicago and entered the chorus of an operatic company, and there she attracted the attention of E. Rice, who engaged her as director in one of his companies in "Iolanthe." She conducted successfully in Boston, and later in Toronto, Canada, where she took the place of Harry Braham, who was taken ill. She succeeded in every attempt and was at once recognized as the possessor of all the qualities that make a successful orchestral conductor. Her ambition was next employed in the production of an opera of her own composition, and "Fleurette" was there suit. She then dramatized Tennyson's "Day Dream." She is engaged on several other operas, some of them of a higher grade. Four of her compositions were selected by Theodore Thomas, to be played in the Columbian Exposition in 1893. These are "I Envy the Rose," "Tecolotl." a Mexican love-song, a "Waltz Song" from "Fleurette," and an operatic "ensemble" for principals and choruses with full orchestral accompaniment. She is recognized as a composer of great merit, a conductor of much ability and a musician whose abilities are marked in every branch of the art. Her home is in New York City.