User:Kennethclark17/New sandbox

Estelle Neuhaus was an American-born concert pianist and classical music scholar who achieved fame in the early 20th Century for her skill and for her ability to raise money for charitable causes. In 1909, she performed at the White House.

Neuhaus was born March 30, 1867 at Lincoln, Penobscot County, Maine to Oscar, a merchant from Germany, and Henrietta Neuhaus, originally from Hungary. Raised in Houlton, the seat of Aroostook County, Maine, she developed an aptitude for piano, impressive enough to necessitate a move to Boston where, as a young adult, she could give lessons to more pupils and where she could both learn from eminent musicians and perform for wider audiences.

Boarding initially in Needham, Massachusetts, she soon moved to Boylston Street and announced her first recital on May 12, 1888. Over the next few years, she studied under Carl Baermann, an accomplished pianist and son of the famous German clarinetist of the same name. Baermann, on faculty at the New England Conservatory of Music, helped refine and elevate Neuhaus's musicianship. She performed at his memorial service five days after his death in 1913. indicative of the level of respect and appreciation she held for her most influential teacher.

In April 1909, Neuhaus was asked by the new First Lady, Helen Herron Taft, to play for a small gathering at the White House.

At this point in her career, Neuhaus was a much sought-after guest of urban elites throughout the North, often playing in lush parlors, ornate hotels, and famed concert halls in front of the nation's wealthiest patrons. She traveled as far south as Baltimore and Washington and as far west as California, frequently coupling her high-end recitals and larger public performances with charitable fundraising.

It is no surprise, then, that she raised large sums of money during the war years for writer Edith Warton's charities in Europe.

On April 27, 1915, Neuhaus married her agent and co-performer John Howe Clifford, a Shakespearean orator of some repute. They had no children.

By 1920, Neuhaus, her husband, and her widowed mother had moved to New York City. She died there on March 4, 1951.