Edward Joseph Collins

Edward Joseph Collins (November 10, 1886 – December 1, 1951) was an American pianist, conductor and composer of classical music in a neoromantic style.

Collins was born in Joliet, Illinois into an Irish family – his father was from County Meath and his mother from Belfast. From age 14, he studied with Rudolf Ganz in Chicago, and in 1906 went with Ganz to Berlin, where he studied performance and composition at the Berlin Hochschule für Musik under Max Bruch and Engelbert Humperdinck. Upon graduation, he had a successful concert piano debut in Berlin. He returned to the United States in 1912 and toured with the contralto Ernestine Schumann-Heink. He was an assistant conductor with the Century Opera Company in New York City and with the Bayreuth Festival in Germany. During World War I, Collins served in the U.S. Army as an interpreter and entertained the troops as pianist. After the war he returned to Chicago and joined the faculty of Chicago Musical College. He later joined the faculty of the American Conservatory of Music.

Collins belonged to a group of conservative Chicago composers whose influence did not reach far beyond the city. His music includes twelve major orchestral works (incl. three piano concertos), a secular cantata, an opera, several chamber works, more than 20 songs and a dozen piano solo and duo scores. For a number of years he was preoccupied with his Irish heritage and wrote several long scores for large orchestra involving traditional Irish melodies.

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