Sallie Andersen: Joachim’s Love

Abstract Sarah Dana Watson was a remarkable woman, both well educated and well traveled. After completing studies at Miss Porter’s School and Vassar College, she moved to Berlin to study piano with Franz Xaver Scharwenka. In her third year of studies, she met Joachim Andersen, abandoned her dream of becoming a professional pianist, and spent their years together supporting him and documenting his work. Her scrapbooks include programs of summer concerts of the Berlin Philharmonic as well as the Tivoli Orchestra, Palækoncerter, Orchestra School, and Rosenborg concerts. After Joachim Andersen passed away, Sallie moved back to the United States and worked at the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, where she donated her scrapbooks and first-edition copies of his music. She then traveled the world, at one point retracing the steps of her uncle and godfather, Richard Henry Dana, Jr., in the journey that had inspired his book, Two Years Before the Mast, 100 years earlier.