Theodora Sturkow-Ryder (August 11, 1876 – August 3, 1958) was an American concert pianist, composer, music critic and piano teacher, based in Chicago.
Early life Theodora Sturkow was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and raised in Chicago,"Sturkow-Ryder a Penna. Musician" Harrisburg Telegraph (April 29, 1922): 6. via Newspapers.com the daughter of Ferdinand Louis Wilhelm Sturckow and Elizabeth Symington Sturckow. Her father was a baker and an amateur violinist who encouraged her musical interests. Her mother was a writer who used the pseudonym "Elizabeth Creighton".International Who's who in Music and Musical Gazetteer (Current Literature Publishing Company 1918): 627. Her sister was actress Elsie Esmond."Between the Acts" Music News (February 3, 1922): 4. Frederick Grant Gleason and Regina Watson were among her teachers and mentors.Daniel I. McNamara, ed. ASCAP Dictionary of Music Composers, Authors, and Songs (Thomas T. Crowell 1952): 829.
Career She was a soloist with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in 1920, when one reviewer admired her as having "the strongest sort of rhythmic sense", adding that "her search for beautiful quality and fineness of interpretation is constant, and she never allows for one moment either harshness or uncertainty to creep into her playing.""Mme. Theodora Sturkow-Ryder with the Symphony Orchestra" Music News (January 16, 1920): 8.
She was a music critic for the Pittsburgh Dispatch newspaper, toured as a concert pianist, and taught at the American Academy of Music in Chicago. She was a member of the National Guild of Piano Teachers, the National League of American Pen Women, the Chicago Woman's Musical Club, and the San Francisco Musical Club."Chicago Woman's Musical Club" Music News (March 31, 1922): 14. Her performing schedule was busy enough to involve flying between cities in 1922, still a novelty at the time."Theodora Sturkow-Ryder Travels in Aeroplane" Musical Leader (June 1, 1922): 576. Later in her career, she represented a radio manufacturer, giving concerts and demonstrations and promoting radio as a tool for music education."Innovation in Musical Work" The Times (January 26, 1930): 23. via Newspapers.com From 1912 onwards, she was a pioneer in recording hand-played player piano rolls, and her playing is preserved on many hundreds of these rolls, recorded for the QRS, Ampico, and Aeolian companies.
Works composed by Sturkow-Ryder"Mme. Sturkow Ryder as Composer" Musical Monitor (February 1915): 211."Mme. Sturkow-Ryder a Prolific Writer" Musical Leader (April 27, 1922): 412. included The Great Lakes and From the Family Album (both symphonic suites), songs for piano and voice, and "twelve dances for violin and piano"."Sturkow-Ryder" Music News (March 3, 1922): 15. She also co-wrote the music for a musical farce, Stockyards Sally (1922)."Edward Clarke" Music News (February 3, 1922): 20.Albert Cotsworth, "Artists' Association Frolic" Music News (February 17, 1922): 10. She may have used the androgynous pseudonym "Dorian Welch" on some compositions and piano rolls."QRS Company Pseudonyms" Pianola: Saving the Music of Yesterday. In 1935 she attended the American Women Composers' Conference in Chautauqua, New York."Women Composers to Meet" New York Times (July 21, 1935): X4.
Personal life Theodora Sturkow married twice. Her first husband was Benjamin Hudson Ryder, an electrical engineer from Pittsburgh; they married in 1906 and he died in 1925."Personal Mention" The Salt Lake Mining Review (January 15, 1926): 38. via Newspapers.com Her second husband was Frank J. Snite. Theodora Sturkow-Ryder Snite died in 1958, aged 82 years, in Oakland, California."Theodora Sturkow-Ryder Snite Passes Away in California" Musical Leader (1958): 174."Mrs. Frank J. Snite" Chicago Tribune (August 13, 1958): 26. via Newspapers.com Sturkow-Ryder's papers are archived in the Newberry Library.Theodora Sturkow Ryder Papers, Newberry Library.
References
External links "With the Medical Corps in France", 1910s sheet music composed by Sturkow Ryder; in the World War I Sheet Music Collection, Library of Congress. Theodora Sturkow Ryder papers at The Newberry