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= Marie Christine Bergerson =

Marie Christine Bergersen (May 15, 1894 - November 29, 1989) was an American pianist, composer, arranger, organist and violinist best known for her piano work Theme and Variations.

Early life
Marie was born to Norwegian-born lawyer, Louis Bernhardt Bergersen, and Mary Letitia Cox, of Cherokee and British heritage, in Chicago, Illinois. Believing in the power of ‘prenatal influence’, her mother hired their neighbour, thirteen year old Louise Robyn, to play piano for Marie while she was still in the womb. It was agreed that if the child showed a gift for music, she would be apprenticed to Robyn on her third birthday. So from the age of three she was apprenticed to Robyn, with whom she took daily music lessons into adulthood. Her mother died, bleeding to death during a menstrual period, when Marie was just eleven.

At the age of fourteen her daily music lessons were supplemented by sessions at the American Conservatory of Music, where she studied composition under Adolf Weidig. By the age of seventeen she began to gain recognition as a performer and composer. It was at this age, in 1911, that she composed her first and only published work, Three Silhouettes for Piano, published by Clayton Summy in 1912. However, it was her Theme and Variations, written in 1912, that led her to further opportunity.

Europe
Riding on the success of Theme and Variations, Marie travelled to Europe with her mentor, Louise Robyn, where she met with influential musical figures such as critic Wilhelm Klatter and composer-pianist Teresa Carreño, who were immensely impressed by her abilities and encouraged her to stay in Europe. The following year, Marie moved to Vienna to attend The Master School of the Imperial Conservatory, studying with the acclaimed pianist, educator and composer Leopold Godowsky. The school board was so impressed with her performance of Theme and Variations, that she became the first and only student to ever be accepted without taking an entrance exam. However, Marie’s time in Europe was short lived; when WWI erupted she was forced to return to the United States. The war years were difficult for Marie, as she lost both her father and Carreño - both great supporters of her music - and suffered from a horrific flu.

Professional Life
During the war she met and fell in love with Raymon Baroff, an established singer, whom she married in 1918. From 1923-1931 Marie took a break from her work to raise her two daughters. She then entered the entertainment business under the pseudonym Marie Baldwin, managing a tour company for the Major Bowes Amateur Hour. Throughout the 1930s she also played in pit orchestras and as an accompanist in vocal and dance studios. In the early 1940s Marie began her stint as a composer and organist for NBC in Chicago, writing music for shows such as Ladies Be Seated, Hymns of All Churches, Jack Armstrong, the All-American Boy, and Sky King, and performing as a guest on numerous others. She performed organ-piano duets with June Lyon, who expressed her admiration for Bergersen's musicianship in an interview:

“''Fabulous. She could play anything—classical, swing, jazz—as though she were born to that style. Her mind took her immediately to creative ideas, but she also brought out creative ideas in anyone with whom she was working.''”

She was also a skilled arranger and is said to have completed around a thousand arrangements during her professional career.

Retirement and Death
In 1951 Marie retired from NBC, but was still well-known and revered in artistic and entertainment circles. In fact, Bergerson’s skills were so renowned that, upon meeting her husband on a train, Rachmaninoff declared her the best sight reader in the United States. Her compositional output slowed down in retirement, but she still undertook projects, such as the music for the opening of the Sunshine Skyway Bridge in St. Petersburg, Florida, in 1954. In 1977 her composition Theme and Variations was played in Washington, D.C. by Arthur R. Tollefson as part of the Bicentennial Celebration.

Bergerson lived out her retirement days in Florida, until moving back to New York in 1985 to live with her family as her health declined. She died at the age of 95 in Binghamton, New York.

Known Works
Unfortunately, very few of Bergerson’s works have been located, and only one was ever published. Recordings of some do exist, but are not easily accessible.

Piano Music


 * Three Silhouettes (1911)


 * Theme and Variations (1911–1912)


 * Shall We Dance? (1940)

Chamber Music


 * String Quartet


 * Piano trio

Songs


 * In Time to Come (1925)


 * Love in a Cottage


 * From the Ends of the Earth (1932)

Arrangements


 * Saber Dance


 * Peg o' My Heart


 * Saturday Date


 * Lover In an 18th Century Drawing Room