Nellie Cornish
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Nellie Centennial Cornish (1876 - 1956), was a pianist, teacher, writer, and founder of the Cornish School (now Cornish College of the Arts).
A native of Blaine, Washington, she grew up as the daughter of the town's first mayor. An accomplished pianist and voice teacher, she taught music in the local high school but as music was considered to be a frill she was not paid. Evidently with some disgust,[citation needed] she moved first to California and then to Seattle, where she founded the Cornish School in 1914. Within three years it had enrolled over 600 students, and was the country's largest music school west of Chicago. She went on to serve as the school's director for the next 25 years. She was influenced by the pedagogical ideas of Maria Montessori [1]
Her middle name reflects the year of her birth, the hundredth anniversary of the founding of the United States of America.
[edit] Notes
- ^ Nate Lippens, short item on Cornish as part of "People Who Shaped Seattle", Seattle Metropolitan, May 2006, p. 59.