Nancy Plummer Faxon

Born November 19, 1914, in Jackson, Mississippi, the second daughter of a prominent businessman, Nancy Plummer Faxon studied pre-med and music at Millsaps College, just walking distance from her home. She completed her B.S. in 1936.  Her love of music drew her to Chicago Musical College to study with pianist Rudolph Ganz, and she obtained her Masters in piano in 1938. At this time she started to study composition with Max Wald. Then, as a student of Nelli Gardini she obtained a second Masters in voice. For this, instead of a written thesis she was allowed to compose an orchestral work; the result, Rhapsody for Piano with Orchestra, won first prize in the National Composer's Clinic (1941).

Although she continued to compose, it was singing, teaching and playing the piano and organ which dominated the next phase of her career. She was a soloist with the Sorrentine Touring Opera Company (of Chicago) (1938), a singer in the chorus of the newly-formed Chicago Opera Company (1940-41), a teacher of voice at the Ward-Belmont School in Nashville, Tennessee (1941-42), the organist/choirmaster at Wheadon Methodist Church of Evanston, Illinois (1943-44), a teacher of piano and music theory at Millsaps College (1945-46), a teacher of theory at the Chaloff School of Music in Boston, Massachusetts (1950-51), and the organist/choirmaster at the Church of the Redeemer in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts (1950-51).

It was at a church conference in Wellesley, Massachusetts that she met her future husband, the organist George Faxon. Smitten, he quickly proposed, and she accepted. When she returned to Jackson to announce the engagement her stunned family asked how long she had known him. "Three days," she replied. They married in December 1941. Their love and professional collaboration lasted fifty years, until his death in 1992.

For many years she sang as a soprano in his professional choir of Trinity Church, Boston (1955-1980). And while raising their three children, she also kept busy composing music for him and others -- every work on commission.

Being busy with a family and composing on commission meant composing on a deadline -- often into the wee hours of the morning. Many things got done at the proverbial "last minute"; she told once of learning that a piece was due when she read the announcement of its upcoming premiere. She distrusted copyists & insisted on doing all her own copying, which she did until the wee hours wearing a green eyeshade.

Her husband commissioned much of her work, and because he had a capable professional choir and was himself a skilled organist, her compositions tend to be not only beautiful but challenging.

Mrs. Faxon was honored several times by the international music fraternity, Mu Phi Epsilon. In 1982 the Boston chapter sponsored a concert of her music, using the proceeds to establish a music scholarship in her name, subsequently awarded annually. In 1986 she received the Orah Ashley Lamke Distinguished Alumni Award.

In 1985 she was honored by the Brookline (Mass.) Library Music Association with a concert solely of her music.

Mrs. Faxon was listed in the first edition of Who's Who in American Women (1958). She was a member of the American Women Composers and Pen Women. A full listing of her works to 1983 is maintained at the Wellesley College Library in Wellesley, Massachusetts. 

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