Frances McCollin

Frances McCollin (October 24, 1892 – February 25, 1960) was an American composer and musician, who was blind from early childhood. She was the first woman to win the Clemson Prize from the American Guild of Organists. In 1951, she was named a Distinguished Daughter of Pennsylvania. Early life and education Frances McCollin was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1892, the daughter of and Alice Graham Lanigan McCollin. Her father, a lawyer, had studied musical composition in college, and he wrote and performed music as a side interest throughout his life. He was one of the founders of the Manuscript Music Society of Philadelphia. and the mother of Edward Arnett. When Frances McCollin was five years old, she became blind, probably from congenital glaucoma. Her parents and extended family took an energetic approach to her education at home, focused on music. When she started to compose in girlhood, her father was her first teacher and transcriber. As a child, she described sensations consistent with synaesthesia and perfect pitch. the organist at St. Stephen’s Church in Philadelphia, and with William Wallace Gilchrist and H. Alexander Matthews at the Pennsylvania Institute for Instr