Woman of the Century/Marion Osgood

OSGOOD, Miss Marion, violinist, composer and orchestra conductor, was born in Chelsea, Mass. She comes of an artistic and musical family. Her late father was associated as a teacher with Lowell Mason, and her mother, Mrs. Mary A. Osgood, is an author and music composer. MARION OSGOOD. It is claimed that Miss Osgood's was the first fully organized professional orchestra of the best class, composed exclusively of women, that has done public service in America, and perhaps in the world. That orchestra, called by her name, consisting of brass and wood-winds and tympani, as well as strings, has won brilliant success, season after season, in social circles and upon the concert platform, and has secured praises from the most exacting metropolitan critics. Her example has been widely imitated, both with and without some measure of success, and to-day professional orchestra-playing by women upon brass, wood-wind, strings and tympani is an established feature of American musical life. Miss Osgood is not desirous of being known to fame mainly as an orchestral conductor. She is giving more and more of her time to solo playing, to musical composition and to teaching and she already ranks among the first of women violinists in this country. Among her many published works are a "Fantaisie Caprice." an album of descriptive pieces for violin and piano, and the song "Loving and Loved." She is arranging for an extended trip through the West as a violin soloist during 1892 and 1893. She teaches in Boston, and her home is in a residential suburb of that city.