Horatio Parker (1863–1919) inherited his talent from his mother who played the organ in Newton, Massachusetts, but she had a hard time interesting her son in music, for he disliked it very much. But at fourteen he had a change of heart going to the other extreme of having literally to be dragged away from the instrument. He studied with Emery and Chadwick, and then went to Germany to work with Rheinberger. He was organist in several churches and in 1894 was made professor of music at Yale University where he remained until his death. In 1894, his best known work was performed in Trinity Church, New York. It is an oratorio, _Hora Novissima_ (_The Last Hour_), on the old Latin poem by Bernard de Morlaix, with English translation by Parker’s mother also the author of the librettos for two other of his oratorios. _Hora Novissima_, one of America’s most important works, has been performed many times, not only in America, but it was the first American work given at the English Worcester Festival. It was so successful that Dr. Parker received the commission to write for another English festival at Hereford, and he composed _A Wanderer’s Psalm_. This was followed by _The Legend of St. Christopher_ which contains some of Parker’s most scholarly contrapuntal writing for chorus. As another result of England’s recognition of his music, Cambridge University conferred upon the American composer the honorary degree of Doctor of Music. Parker became famous for winning the prize of $10,000 offered by the Metropolitan Opera Company in 1911 for the best opera by an American. This was _Mona_, a story of the Druids in Britain, for which Brian Hooker, the American poet, wrote the libretto. In spite of the work having won the prize, it had no success with the public, and did not outlive its first season. In 1915 Parker and Hooker won another $10,000 prize offered by the National Federation of Music Clubs, with an opera called _Fairyland_. It has not seen the light of day since its performances in Los Angeles. FREDERICK CONVERSE Frederick Converse (1871), like many other Boston musicians, was graduated from Harvard (1893), when his _Opus I_, a violin sonata, was publicly performed. After study with Chadwick, he went to Germany to Rheinberger, returning in 1898, with his first symphony under his arm. He is now living in Boston. Converse has written many orchestral and chamber music works, and has often set Keats, the English poet, or used his writings as inspiration for his music,—_Festival of Pan_ and _Endymion’s Narrative_, two symphonic poems, and _La Belle Dame sans Merci_, a ballad for baritone voice and orchestra. Converse was the first of the present day Americans to have had an opera _The Pipe of Desire_ produced by the Metropolitan Opera Company (1910). TWO COLLEGE PROFESSORS