The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 63, July 1959 - April, 1960 Page: 273
684 p. : ill., maps, ports. ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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A History of Kidd-Key College
have at least one year in harmony, history of music, and collegiate
English I and II. These pupils received their artists' diplomas
only after having been a member of the Artists' Class two years
and having performed in public with success. Organ lessons on
the two-manual electric pipe organ could be taken only after a
certain degree of perfection was reached on the piano.
Voice lessons were also taught at the conservatory, and students
with vocal talent were urged to join the oratorical society which
was organized by Harry Detweiler in 19go02. In 1906, with 2o2
members, the society performed in the Sherman Spring Music
Festival. The students also presented the "Holy City," "Elijah,"
and like oratorios from time to time.82
Professors of the conservatory included some of the outstanding
musicians of the times. Pianist Harold von Mickwitz of Finland
was brought to America in 1897 by Mrs. Kidd-Key to become
director of the conservatory. Frank Renard, winner of an inter-
national prize in composition, taught piano, organ, and violin
techniques. Hans Richard, a pianist from Switzerland, became
director of the conservatory in 1915. Jacob Schreiner, a violinist
of the Cincinnati Conservatory, joined the other musicians as did
violinist Carl Venth of Germany. Demands of the students brought
Paul Cessna Gerhart from Pennsylvania to teach the popular in-
strument of the period-the mandolin.83
The college kept growing in size and prestige, thus necessitating
more buildings and space. In 1go5 Mrs. Kidd-Key purchased
Mary Nash College, a Baptist-sponsored girls' school, which had
faced the campus of North Texas Female College across Elm .Street
since 1877. The Baptists vacated Mary Nash in 9gol, and the four
buildings included in the purchase furnished North Texas Female
College with two more dormitories, a gymnasium, and separate
quarters for the conservatory."
The peak year for North Texas Female College was 1912. At-
tendance was so large that the "string" extended for more than
two city blocks. When the front two girls were entering the Meth-
82Program for music festival, April 23-24, 19o6 (Kidd-Key Room, Fondren Li-
brary, Southern Methodist University).
38Daily Democrat (Sherman), April 17, 1938.
4lbid.273
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 63, July 1959 - April, 1960, periodical, 1960; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101186/m1/347/: accessed April 26, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.