Biography

Lily Strickland was born in Anderson, South Carolina

Anderson, South Carolina

Anderson is a city in and the county seat of Anderson County, South Carolina, United States. The population was estimated at 26,242 in 2006, and the city was the center of an urbanized area of 70,530...

, of parents Charlton Hines Strickland and his wife Teresa Hammond Reed. When her father died, the family moved into the home of her grandparents, Judge and Mr. J. Pinckney Reed. Strickland began studying piano at age six and began composing in her teens. She studied piano and composition at Converse College

Converse College

Converse College is a liberal arts women's college in Spartanburg, South Carolina, USA. It was established by a group of Spartanburg citizens and named after Dexter Edgar Converse.-History:...

 and in 1905 received a scholarship to study at the Institute of Musical Arts (later Juilliard) in New York City.

In 1912 she married Joseph Courtenay Anderson, an English teacher at Columbia University

Columbia University

Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...

. When Anderson became manager for an American company in 1920, the couple moved to Calcutta, and spent the next ten years in India. Stickland traveled in Africa and Asia, painted and published articles in American magazines. She received an honorary doctorate in music from Converse College in 1924 in recognition of her success as a composer.

The Andersons returned to New York, and in 1948 retired to a farm near Hendersonville, North Carolina

Hendersonville, North Carolina

Hendersonville is a city in Henderson County, North Carolina, USA, southeast of Asheville. In 1900, 1,917 persons lived in Hendersonville; in 1910, 2,818; and in 1940, 5,381 people lived here. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 12,223, up fivefold in one century. It is the county...

. Strickland never had children, and died of a stroke in 1958.

Works

Strickland published 395 works, including popular and sacred music and children's songs. Her early compositions were influenced by spirituals and folk songs from the American South, and later works by Asian and African music. Selected works include:

• Mah Lindy Lou
• Ballade of la belle dame sans merci (Text: John Keats)
• Love wakes and weeps (Text: Sir Walter Scott)
• My lover is a fisherman (from Songs of India)

Strickland's music has been recorded and issued on CD, including:

• AMERICAN INDIANISTS, Vol. 2, Marco Polo (1996)

External links

• List of recorded songs