The Music Study Club began in La Crosse, Wisconsin, in 1911 as a women’s group. Members had to be married and be able to perform. During the first year, the members studied classical music and the second year began to sponsor a concert. That first concert netted $12 in proceeds and the Club began to contract with high caliber musical artists to come to La Crosse to perform.
Some of the more notable performers were George Truc, pianist and Alexander Debruille, violinist; Rudolph Reuter and Edward Collins in a two-piano recital; Olive Nevin, soprano; Edna Gunnar Peterson-Thompson, pianist; the Pavley-Oukrainsky ballet; Cecil Burleigh, composer-violinist; Allen McQuahe, tenor; Pablo Casals, cellist; Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, Charles Norman Granville, baritone; New York String Quartet; Percy Grainger, composer and pianist; and Luella Melius, soprano. Most of the concerts were held at the La Crosse Theater and the State Normal School (University of Wisconsin-La Crosse).
According to an article in 1961 celebrating the Club’s golden anniversary, “One year we faced a budget of $5,200. We got scared and stopped. Changing economic conditions made it increasingly hard for us and besides, fine music was made available on radio.” It was then that Club member Elise (Lovold) Cilley (Mrs. Percy L. Cilley) launched into the concert field on her own and arranged to bring the best talent available to La Crosse by herself until her death in 1932. This idea of the public concert series eventually gave birth to the Community Concert Association.
In 1928, the group became affiliated with the Wisconsin Federation of Music Clubs. Members also performed musical selections themselves, many of them vocal selections, though violin and piano were also popular instruments as well. In 1972, the group allowed men to join. It is thought that the group disbanded sometime after 1983.
