| September 5, 1867 | Amy Marcy Cheney is born in Henniker, New Hampshire, to Clara Imogene (Marcy) Cheney and Charles Abbott Cheney. | |
| 1871 | Clara Cheney allows her child to sit at the piano for the first time. Amy Cheney is able to pick out tunes and harmonize them from memory. Starting at age six, mother and daughter hold lessons in their home three times a week. | “Mamma’s Waltz” |
| 1876 | Amy Cheney begins piano study with Ernst Perabo. Mentors recommend that Amy be sent to Europe, but her mother declines. |
|
| 1881 | Cheney begins to study harmony with Junius Welch Hill at Wellesley College. She takes lessons for only one year. | |
| 1882 | Cheney ends her study with Perabo and begins study with Carl Baermann, a pupil of Liszt. Amy also begins to educate herself on counterpoint and orchestration by examining works of prominent composers such as J. S. Bach. | |
| October 24, 1883 | Amy Cheney gives her official debut, performing in Alfred P. Peck’s Anniversary Concert in Boston. | |
| January 9, 1884 | Cheney’s first public recital is given at Chickering Hall in Boston. | “A Rainy Day” (1884) |
| February 1885 | Cheney’s composition, “With Violets,” is published by the Arthur P. Schmidt Company. |
|
| March 28, 1885 | Amy Cheney performs Chopin’s Concerto in F minor, op. 21, in her debut with the Boston Symphony Orchestra. |
| December 2, 1885 | At age 18, Amy Marcy Cheney is married to Henry Harris Aubrey Beach, a prominent Boston physician. In accordance with Henry’s wishes, Amy limits her public piano performances and turns to composing under her married name, Mrs. H. H. A. Beach. The couple reside at 28 Commonwealth Avenue in Boston. |
|
| February 7, 1892 | The Handel and Haydn Society of Boston performs Beach’s first major work, the Grand Mass in E-flat major, op. 5. |
|
| May 1–October 30, 1893 | Several of Beach’s works are performed at the World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago. |
|
| November 21, 1894 | Beach begins composing the first movement of her “Gaelic” Symphony, basing many of the work’s themes on Gaelic folk tunes. |
|
| October 31, 1896 | The Boston Symphony Orchestra performs Beach’s “Gaelic” Symphony, op. 32, under Emil Paur’s baton. This work is met with outstanding success. |
|
| April 7, 1900 | Amy Beach premieres her Piano Concerto in C-sharp minor, op. 45, with the Boston Symphony Orchestra. |
|
| February 8, 1905 | Amy Beach premieres her Variations on Balkan Themes, op. 60, a large-scale work for solo piano. |
|
| June 28, 1910 | Henry Harris Aubrey Beach dies of infection following a fall. |
|
| February 18, 1911 | Amy Beach’s mother dies. | |
| September 5, 1911 | Newly widowed, Amy Beach sets sail for her European tour, where she promotes her own music outside the United States for the first time. |
| 1911–1914 | Amy Beach’s compo-sitions are met with popularity in Germany, especially her larger works. | |
| September 18, 1914 | Shortly after the outbreak of World War I, Amy Beach arrives in New York after her three-year tour. | |
| February 1915 | Amy Beach begins renting an apartment in New York City, leaving her residence at 28 Commonwealth Avenue behind. | |
| 1915–1916 | Beach continues to travel and perform throughout the United States, mainly California. | Panama Hymn, op. 74 (1915) |
| February 1918 | Amy Beach relocates to Hillsborough, New Hampshire, along with her aunt and cousin. | |
| Summer 1921 | Beach begins her visits to the MacDowell Colony in Peterborough, New Hampshire. She would stay at the Colony periodically over the next twenty years. Beach divides her time between the Colony, her New York apartment, and her two homes. |
|
| 1925 | The Society of American Women Composers is founded. Beach serves the organization as president until 1928 and honorary president until 1932. | |
| June 18, 1928 | Amy Beach receives an honorary master’s degree from the University of New Hampshire. The university president later expresses regret that the university did not award her an honorary doctorate instead. |
|
| June 18, 1932 | Beach completes her one-act opera, Cabildo, op. 149. | Cabildo, op. 149 (1932) |
| April 23, 1934 | Beach is summoned to the White House by Eleanor Roosevelt to accompany soprano Ruth Shaffner. | |
| April 17, 1936 | Beach is invited to perform at the White House again with Shaffner. | |
| March 19, 1940 | Amy Beach’s last performance takes place in Brooklyn with violinist Carl Tollefsen and cellist Willem Durieux. Shortly after, doctors forbid her to play piano due to deteriorating health. | Trio, op. 150 (1939) |
| November 27–28, 1942 | A festival is held in honor of Beach’s 75th birthday at the Phillips Gallery in Washington, DC. Bashka Paeff’s plaster bust of Beach is displayed, and several concerts entirely comprised of Beach’s compositions are performed. | |
| December 27, 1944 | Amy Marcy Cheney Beach passes away of heart disease in her New York apartment, attended by Ruth Shaffner. | Pax nobiscum (1944) |
By Amaris Wolfe.
