William Hall Sherwood

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William Hall Sherwood (January 31, 1854 – January 7, 1911) was an American pianist and music teacher who helped popularize piano in the United States. He founded the Sherwood Music School in Chicago, a school that later joined Columbia College Chicago in 2007.

Sherwood was born in Lyons, New York, to Reverend Lyman H. Sherwood and Mary Balis Sherwood. He began studying piano at age nine and was Teaching younger students at his father’s Lyons Musical Academy by 1866. In 1871 he spent five weeks studying with the American pianist William Mason, who encouraged him to study in Europe.

In Europe he studied in Berlin with Theodor Kullak and also spent time in Stuttgart. He learned from several teachers, worked as an organist, and began composing. His first big success came after the 1872–73 winter season when he performed Beethoven’s Emperor Concerto with the Berlin Orchestra, a concert that drew large audiences and was repeated.

While in Europe he met Mary Neilson Fay, a talented American pianist. They married in 1874 and had three children. They spent time in Weimar where they heard Franz Liszt, who offered to be the godfather to their eldest daughter. The couple returned to the United States in 1876, and Sherwood joined the faculty of the New England Conservatory of Music. He also gave concerts across the country with Fay.

Their marriage ended in divorce; Fay sued Sherwood for child support in 1886. In 1887 Sherwood married Estelle F. Abrams, and they had two children.

Sherwood spent summers teaching at the Chautauqua Institution piano school, a tradition he continued until 1910. In 1889 he moved to Chicago to lead the Pianoforte Department at the Conservatory of Music at the School for Music and Dramatic Art. In 1895 he left to open his own school, the Sherwood Music School, in Chicago’s Fine Arts Building.

He also taught for the Siegel-Myers Correspondence School of Music, writing piano lesson plans and courses for distance learners starting in 1906. These materials helped form the Extension Division of the Sherwood Music School after his death.

Sherwood suffered a stroke in 1910 and died on January 7, 1911. His student and assistant, Georgia Kober, took over as president of the Sherwood Music School and led it for more than thirty years.