Born: 1884 (circa), Russia
Died: 1966
Country most active: United States, International
Also known as: Helena, Helen, Yelena von Sayn
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Elena de Sayn (also known as Helena, Helen, or Yelena) was born on May 10, most likely in 1884, in Voronezh, Russia, to General Emmanuel and Marie (Chmelova) von Sayn. She was a member of the Sayn-Wittgenstein-Berleburg family and changed her name from von Sayn to de Sayn upon becoming an American citizen. She studied at the Imperial Conservatory in St. Petersburg under Johannes Nelbandian and graduated from the Royal Conservatory in Leipzig in 1911. Her violin teachers included Hans Sitt in Leipzig, Leopold Auer in New York, and Otakar Ševčík in Vienna. During the 1910s, she toured throughout Russia, Europe, and the Americas with operatic soprano Alice Eversman. She lived in Asheville, North Carolina, during the early 1920s, opening a music conservatory there and writing for the Asheville Citizen and Musical America. She settled in Washington, D.C., in 1922 and in 1924 founded the Société des Concerts Intimes, which engaged well-known musical artists for concerts in D.C. She also founded the American Society for Music and Fine Arts and served as its president for thirty years. She was a member of the League of American Pen Women and served as the D.C. Chairwoman of Music. She was a violin instructor at the Catholic University of America and taught private violin lessons in D.C., including through a program offered by the Veterans Administration. In 1937, she began working for The Washington Star as a music critic and assistant music editor to Eversman, a position she held until her retirement in 1954.
She continued performing throughout her life and was a proponent of American music, contemporary music, and music by women composers. She performed at the Chicago World’s Fair in 1933 and the New York World’s Fair in 1939, and claimed to be the first person to program a concert of music composed solely by American women composers. She died in Washington, D.C., in December 1966.