Boettcher, Emily, 1907-1992
Dates
- Existence: 1907 - 1992
Biography
Emily Charlotte Boettcher Bogue was born on June 16, 1907, in Miller, South Dakota. Boettcher was a concert pianist as well as music instructor. Boettcher earned her Bachelor and Master degrees in music from Northwestern University before returning as a music instructor from 1930 – 1939, after which she married and moved to England. She continued to teach private lessons, and also toured as a pianist. Upon her husband's retirement, Boettcher moved to California. She died in 1992.
Boettcher was educated in South Dakota and in Lewiston, Montana, where her family moved in 1917. Boettcher began taking piano lessons in Miller; in Lewiston, she continued her lessons, began writing her own compositions, and performed at recitals, festivals, weddings, and meetings. Her playing won a state contest in 1922. After her graduation from Fergus County High School in 1924, Boettcher attended the Northwestern University School of Music, earning a Bachelor of Music Degree in 1926 and the Master of Music degree in 1928.
After studying in Vienna and Berlin for a year, Boettcher returned to Northwestern, where she was an Instructor in the School of Music from 1930 to 1937. She performed at numerous concerts in the Chicago area, and spent most summers in Europe, primarily in Germany, to continue her musical studies.
In 1938, Boettcher married Dr. J. Yule Bogue (1904-1996), Professor of Physiology at the University of London. Her last institutional teaching experience was the summer session at Northwestern in 1939. After 1940, she and Bogue resided in England.
Boettcher's career as concert pianist included concert tours in Germany; appearances with the Evanston Symphony Orchestra, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, and the London Philharmonic; and radio concerts for the BBC. Although World War II interrupted her professional career, Boettcher joined the Council for the Encouragement of Music and the Arts (CEMA) and toured England, performing for local musical societies, army camps, the home fleet, and munitions and airplane factories.
After the war, Boettcher continued to perform for the BBC, gave recitals in the London area, and offered private lessons. Boettcher and Bogue lived in England until Bogue retired in 1966, at which time they moved to Portola Valley, California where Boettcher died on April 13, 1992. In his wife's memory, Bogue established the Emily Boettcher and J. Yule Bogue Endowed Fund for Graduate Students at the Northwestern University School of Music. The first recipient of this scholarship was named in 1993.