Solveig Lunde Madsen
Solveig Lunde Madsen (originally Dorothy Lunde) was born in Vallejo, California on February 23, 1920. She began taking piano lessons at age 4 and demonstrated great precocity, excelling in music and academics. After graduating high school at age 15, Lunde studied with the renowned Danish pianist Gunnar Johansen, and with Harold Logan, both of whom were pupils of Egon Petri. In 1940 she received a four year fellowship for study at the Juilliard School of Music in New York City where her teacher was Olga Samaroff-Stokowski. Madame Samaroff considered Lunde to be one of the most promising students she had encountered and forecast a brilliant career for her. Lunde’s talented classmates included William Kapell and Joseph Battista.
Lunde’s critically acclaimed New York debut at Town Hall on December 6, 1944 was followed by tours of The U.S., Canada, Mexico and Scandinavia under Columbia Artists management. Her highly developed pianism was complimented by her titian red-gold hair, which made for a striking stage appearance. Lunde performed a varied repertoire, and her concert resumé includes first New York performances of works by Fartein Valen and William Bergsma. She also gave the first public performance of Prokofiev’s 8th Piano Sonata, and her performance of Prokofiev’s 7th Sonata in the U.S. was preceded only by that of Horowitz.
After six years of concertizing, Lunde married Lynn Madsen, a Civil Engineer with Arabian American Oil Company in 1950. Lunde greatly curtailed her concert activities while living in Rome, New York, Washington D.C. and Saudi Arabia from 1951 to 1971. She settled in Salt Lake City with her husband and two sons in 1971, and gradually resumed an active career as a performer, teacher, lecturer and adjudicator. Lunde has held teaching positions at Brigham Young University and the University of Utah, while maintaining a private studio. She is listed in the “International Who’s Who in Music” and in “The World’s Who’s Who of Women.”
The Solveig Lunde Madsen Collection contains concert material pertaining to Lunde’s career along with correspondence and other writings concerning her famous teacher Olga Samaroff Stokowski. Also significant to the collection are approximately 150 letters to Lunde from fellow Samaroff pupil William Kapell. These letters (written from 1941 to 1947) are significant, as they give insight into the early portion of Kapell’s career.
SERIES DESCRIPTION
SERIES I – SUBJECT FILES
SERIES II – PERFORMANCE FILES
SERIES III – CORRESPONDENCE: FAMILY
SERIES IV – CORRESPONDENCE / SUBJECT FILES: WILLIAM KAPELL
SERIES V – CORRESPONDENCE / SUBJECT FILES: OLGA SAMAROFF
SERIES VI – CORRESPONDENCE: MISCELLANEOUS
SERIES VII - PHOTOGRAPHS
SERIES VIII - RECORDINGS
