Winifred Byrd

Who was Winifred Byrd?

Winifred Byrd was an American concert pianist and educator.

Byrd attended Willamette University and graduated from New England Conservatory in 1905. While studying at NEC she won the Spaulding scholarship. Byrd taught for a time at NEC shortly after her graduation.

Byrd studied in Boston with Madame Hopekirk, Carl Baermann, and Theresa Carreño and eventually taught music at Olivet College in Olivet, Michigan.

Byrd made her New York debut on February 27, 1918, and went on to perform in Chicago, Boston, Portland, Oregon, and San Francisco. Impresario Aaron Richmond presented Byrd in Boston in 1925, billing her as "America's Pianist." James Huneker, reviewing a Byrd recital for The New York Times on November 4, 1918, wrote, "She blazes with temperament. She has the energy of a demon." Hunecker also noted Byrd's "Buster Brown coiffure".

Byrd made at least two Duo-Art reproducing piano rolls, Franz Liszt's "Dance of the Gnomes", from Concert Étude No. 2, and Chopin's Preludes, Opus 28, No. 1 in C major and No. 23 in F major, for the Aeolian Company.

In July 1925, Byrd sustained fractured ribs when she was struck by a car on New York's 5th Avenue.