Grace Harriet Spofford

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Grace Harriet Spofford (September 21, 1887 – June 5, 1974) was an American music educator and administrator who directed the music program at the Henry Street Settlement in New York City from 1935 to 1954. Born in Haverhill, Massachusetts, she showed an early love of music and learned piano as a child with her sister, Harriet M. Newman. She studied at Mount Holyoke College and then Smith College, earning early piano training before teaching and studying in Boston. She spent twelve years at the Peabody Conservatory in Baltimore, earning piano (1913) and organ (1916) certificates and working as an executive secretary and music critic.

In 1924 Spofford became dean of the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, where she helped shape the curriculum and started an international scholarship program. She spoke out for women in music in 1928 but resigned in 1931 after a dispute with director Josef Hofmann. She moved to New York and shifted to radio-based music education, running a music counseling service and assisting with Layman’s Music Courses. She also taught at the Katharine Gibbs School and served as associate director of the New York College of Music, receiving an honorary doctorate in 1952.

Spofford’s most notable role was directing the Henry Street Settlement’s music school. There she expanded access to music education for underprivileged students and helped commission Aaron Copland to write an opera for the school, The Second Hurricane, which premiered in 1937. The opera, with a libretto by Edwin Denby, was conducted by Lehman Engel and staged by Orson Welles.

After retiring in 1954, Spofford represented the United States at international conferences on music education and chaired music committees for women’s organizations, including the International Council of Women and the National Council of Women of the United States. She also served on the Board of Counselors for Smith College. She died of a heart attack in New York City in 1974.

Spofford had a lifelong friendship with Peabody colleague Elizabeth Coulson. They lived together for many years and co-authored A Guide for Beginners in Piano Playing (1916).