The purpose of this research is to investigate the life and piano teaching of Olga Samaroff in order to determine her contribution to American music.The sub-problems were to survey the important influences upon her life; examine her association with wealthy patrons, concert managers, and conductors; scrutinize her personal relationship with Leopold Stokowski; define and discuss her piano teaching method; assess her application of it with a cross section of students; and reveal the problems that her method encountered.Olga Samaroff (San Antonio, Texas, 8 August 1882-New York, 17 May 1948), christened Lucie Mary Olga Agnes Hickenlooper, first studied piano with her grandmother, Mrs. Lucie Loening Grunewald. Grunewald emphasized the importance of recreating accurately the composer's text. Much of Samaroffs teaching method evolved from her early training with Grunewald.Samaroff, the first American female to win a scholarship at the Paris Conservatoire, entered it in 1896. Studies in Berlin (1898-1900) followed with Ernst Jedlickza and Ernest Hutcheson. In Paris and Berlin, Samaroff personally expE!rienced a slavish attitude towards musicaltradition, and later eschewed such adherence to any single school or style.Her first marriage (1900) to a Russian named Boris Loutzky subsequently caused her to settle in St. Petersburg (now Leningrad). After leaving Loutzky in 1904, Samaroff returned to the US and began her concert career. The vicissitudes of her career presented her with first hand experience. Samaroff withdrew several times from the concert stage, retiring officially in 1926 due to an arm injury. In the meantime, she married and later divorced conductor Leopold Stokowski_(1911-23), whose rehearsal technique she cited as an important influence on her teaching.She began teaching at the newly established Juilliard Graduate School in 1924. She also taught at the Philadelphia Conservatory (1924-48).Samaroff s two-part approach of artistic independence and human development contrasted with the artist-coach method of other prominent teachers of the day. Her students were surveyed about the efficacy of her teaching. In addition Samaroffs own files and personal correspondence, hitherto unavailable, are included as evidence in support of this author's findings. / School of Music