Martha Baird Rockefeller was an American pianist, philanthropist and longtime advocate for the arts.
Formative years
Born in Madera County, California in the community of Madera on March 15, 1895, Martha Baird Rockefeller was the second oldest child of merchant William F. Baird and Almina Abby Baird, a piano and organ instructor in the University of Southern California'sCollege of Music. Her mother, who was known to family and friends as "Mina," was her first piano instructor; her first classroom experiences were undertaken at the Westside School on what is, today, the grounds of Madera High School. At the age of eight, her world was transformed dramatically by two major events – her first public performance as a pianist in June 1903 and the untimely death of her mother later that same year. During the recital, which was held at the university where her mother taught, she performed "In the Gypsies' Camp." Following her mother's death at the age of 43, she endured further upheaval when her banker father made the decision to leave Madera behind following a failed land deal which made headlines statewide. After relocating with her father to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, she then continued to study the piano while completing her high school education at the Blairsville School for Girls in Indiana County, Pennsylvania and undergraduate training at Occidental College in Los Angeles. By 1915, she was enrolled in the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston, Massachusetts where, in 1917, she placed first in the conservatory’s annual piano competition and then graduated summa cum laude from the conservatory's soloist program. That same year, she made her debut in recital at Jordan Hall in Boston on November 17, garnering solid reviews from the arts sections of major newspapers, including The Boston Globe. She then pursued further advanced studies in Berlin, Germany with the legendary pianist Artur Schnabel. By 1918, she was touring with Australian soprano Nellie Melba. Three years after her Boston success, Martha Baird performed before New York City audiences for the first time, appearing at the Princess Theater on March 22, 1920. On August 4 of that same year, she wed importer Adrian van Laar, but the union was not a lasting one; the couple divorced in 1925. It was during this time, however, that her performing career truly began to take off, fueled by an intense touring schedule across Europe and the United States. According to The New York Times, "she made her London debut at Royal Albert Hall with Sir Thomas Beecham and the London Symphony Orchestra" in 1926, and then also "appeared with the Boston Symphony Orchestra under the late Serge Koussevitzky." Her second marriage — to lawyer Arthur Moulton Allen — was a far more successful one. They remained a couple from the time of their wedding day until her husband’s death on May 6, 1950. Although she concertized periodically during this phase of her life, her greatest contributions to the arts came in the form of advocacy and philanthropy. In addition to her longtime service as the president of the Providence Community Concert Association in Rhode Island, she also was actively involved in fostering the outreach by the Providence Symphony Orchestra to area youth through concerts and other initiatives, and served on the board of trustees for her alma mater, the New England Conservatory. Her third and final marriage – to John D. Rockefeller Jr. – enabled her to take her philanthropic work to even greater heights. On the day of her marriage to the longtime friend of her late husband and fellow widower, she was given a sizeable trust fund by Rockefeller, which she used to establish the Martha Baird Rockefeller Fund for Music in 1957. When her third husband died in 1960, she then redirected a significant portion of her $48 million inheritance to that fund. In operation until 1982, the Martha Baird Rockefeller Fund for Music provided critical scholarship and grant support to solo artists and ensembles for a quarter of a century before it was dissolved. Among her beneficiaries, according to The New York Times, were the: “Boston Symphony Orchestra, the City Center of Music and Drama, Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, the Manhattan School of Music, the Metropolitan Opera Association, the Symphony of the New World, and the New England Conservatory of Music. In the 1969‐1970 season she made gifts for the City Center's new production of ‘Rigoletto’ and for the Metropolitan's new mountings of ‘Norma’ and ‘Der Freischütz.’” A governor of the American Red Cross, she also "supported organizations of special interest to her late husband," including "Colonial Williamsburg, Harvard Divinity School, the Riverside Church, Brown University, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the National Council of Churches and the Sealantic Fund."
