Theodora Dutton

Piano students around the world learn Theodora Dutton’s composition, Christmas-Day Secrets, without even knowing that it was the first publication from a woman composer from Springfield, Massachusetts. In fact, it’s the only publication in the Suzuki piano repertoire by a woman, credited only to “T. Dutton, dates unknown.” I began to dig deeper and found the touching story of a young woman who was determined to become a composer in the Victorian Era, and how her first publication survived the WWII evacuation of Tokyo to re-emerge in 1970, to now be played by thousands.

I’ll share more background and stories here, as well as republish some of her lost works.