Catherine Murphy Urner Shatto (23 March 1891 – 30 April 1942) was an American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 composer.

Life

Catherine Murphy Urner was born in Mitchell

Mitchell

Mitchell may refer to:* B-25 Mitchell, an American World War II-era bomber aircraft* Billy Mitchell Award, a Civil Air Patrol Cadet Program award* Mitchell , an automobile built in Racine, Wisconsin from 1903-1923...

, Indiana

Indiana

Indiana is a US state, admitted to the United States as the 19th on December 11, 1816. It is located in the Midwestern United States and Great Lakes Region. With 6,483,802 residents, the state is ranked 15th in population and 16th in population density. Indiana is ranked 38th in land area and is...

, the third of seven children of Southern Illinois Normal College principal Edward Everett Urner (later a Methodist minister) and writer Jessie Robertson Urner. She studied piano, voice and composition at Goucher College

Goucher College

Goucher College is a private, co-educational, liberal arts college located in the northern Baltimore suburb of Towson in unincorporated Baltimore County, Maryland, on a 287 acre campus. The school has approximately 1,475 undergraduate students studying in 31 majors and six interdisciplinary...

 in Baltimore

Baltimore

Baltimore is the largest independent city in the United States and the largest city and cultural center of the US state of Maryland. The city is located in central Maryland along the tidal portion of the Patapsco River, an arm of the Chesapeake Bay. Baltimore is sometimes referred to as Baltimore...

, Maryland

Maryland

Maryland is a U.S. state located in the Mid Atlantic region of the United States, bordering Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware to its east...

, Peabody

Peabody

-Places:United States* Peabody, Indiana* Peabody, Kansas** Peabody Downtown Historic District, in Peabody, Kansas* Peabody, Massachusetts* Peabody, Cambridge, Massachusetts, a neighborhood* Peabody River, in New Hampshire-Institutions:...

 Conservatory and Miami University

Miami University

Miami University is a coeducational public research university located in Oxford, Ohio, United States. Founded in 1809, it is the 10th oldest public university in the United States and the second oldest university in Ohio, founded four years after Ohio University. In its 2012 edition, U.S...

 in Oxford

Oxford

The city of Oxford is the county town of Oxfordshire, England. The city, made prominent by its medieval university, has a population of just under 165,000, with 153,900 living within the district boundary. It lies about 50 miles north-west of London. The rivers Cherwell and Thames run through...

, Ohio

Ohio

Ohio is a Midwestern state in the United States. The 34th largest state by area in the U.S.,it is the 7th‑most populous with over 11.5 million residents, containing several major American cities and seven metropolitan areas with populations of 500,000 or more.The state's capital is Columbus...

, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1912. She continued her studies at the University of California at Berkeley and with Charles Koechlin

Charles Koechlin

Charles Louis Eugène Koechlin was a French composer, teacher and writer on music. He was a political radical all his life and a passionate enthusiast for such diverse things as medieval music, The Jungle Book of Rudyard Kipling, Johann Sebastian Bach, film stars , travelling, stereoscopic...

 in Paris

Paris

Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...

 from 1920-21.

Urner worked as a professor and director of vocal music at Mills College

Mills College

Mills College is an independent liberal arts women's college founded in 1852 that offers bachelor's degrees to women and graduate degrees and certificates to women and men. Located in Oakland, California, Mills was the first women's college west of the Rockies. The institution was initially founded...

 in Oakland, California from 1921-24. After leaving Mills College, she devoted her time to performing, composing and touring in the U.S. and Europe with the assistance of Charles Koechlin. She also collected Native American tribal melodies which she incorporated into her compositions. Her first string quartet premiered in 1925 at Salle Playel in Paris. She arranged for Koechlin to teach a couse at the University of California in 1928, and afterward lived with Koechlin in Paris until 1933, collaborating on a number of works. In 1937 she returned to California and married organist and composer Charles Rollins Shatto (1908–1983).
She died in San Diego, and her papers are housed at the University of California at Berkeley Library.

Works

Her archived works include over eighty songs, a number of Native American songs, twenty-four choral works and eight orchestral works. Selected compositions include:

• The Bride of a God with Charles Koechlin
• Come Away, Death
• Song of the Sea
• Song from "April"
• Le Papillon
• Quatre Melodies, collection of songs
• Ici-bas
• Colloque Sentimental