Rewind: March 15, 2025
“SHE REIGNED FOR DECADES: Brunnhilde Decker McCune – Autocrat of Things Musical”
by Eloise O’Neil
Brunnhilde Decker McCune, pianist, teacher, music critic reigned for decades as an autocrat of things musical in Glens Falls. For more than 50 years she taught a large class of private piano pupils and set an ambitious example for them by fostering a love of music. Her annual recitals always attracted a large number of music lovers because of her superior attainment. Mrs. McCune organized and presented a variety of concerts, many featuring young music students, singers, instrumentalists, and opera excerpts in concerts for the community.
Brunnhilde’s contemporaries who shared this golden age of local culture were Giovannina and her sister, Virginia de Blasiis, Maurice Whitney and Frank Walsh. These were the folks who entertained, directed and instilled youngsters with decent values and ideas in the arts and attitudes. In “Hometown U.S.A.” the enrichment of music balanced sports, education and church.
What made Mrs. McCue classical was perhaps her birthright. eeHer father was Louis Kay Decker, a graduate of the Royal Conservatory of Music in Stuttgart, Germany. She became a student of the famous Venezuelan teacher, Teresa Carreno, and then Alexander Lambert, of New York College of Music. At the age of 17, she became the organist at the First Presbyterian Church in Glens Falls, and held that position for 15 years. Later she was the organist and choir director of St. Mary’s Church in Hudson Falls.
When she was 24, Brunnhilde actually had a normal social life because she married Bill McCune and raised two children. Bill also played the organ and trumpet. Together they taught music lessons in Glens Falls throughout the 20’s and 30’s, up until WWII. After the war, he no longer gave organ instructions, but she continued with private lessons. The McCunes were married for 61 years and resided at 43 Grove Avenue for several years.
Together the McCunes were active in the Morning Musical Society and were organ/piano accompanists of the Glens Falls Oratorio Society. They were organizers of the Glens Falls Concert Association which had its locations of their functions at the First Presbyterian Church. There is a Steinway concert grand piano with a bronze plate that designates it “The McCune Piano” at the church.
For many years after the war, Brunnhilde was a music correspondent for the POST STAR. Her ears and eyes did not miss much. She covered chamber music at the HYDE, glee clubs; church choral groups; piano recitals; band concerts and various college performances. from Skidmore, Union, Siena and Ithaca colleges.
For several years she taught classes in music appreciation under adult education programs in Glens Falls and in Warrensburg. She was an outstanding and exceptional teacher, and furthermore, she inspired the young and spent her life culturing the love of great music in Glens Falls.
Brunnhilde passed away on July 29, 1968 after breaking her hip on a New England vacation. Survivors were her husband, Will, and her 2 grown children, Edith and William.
The McCune Concert Grand Steinway