American composer and pianist Mildred Couper (1887-1974) is one of the first musicians to experiment with quarter-tone music. She was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina and was educated in Italy, France and Germany. At the outbreak of World War One she and her family fled to New York City. In New York she taught piano for nine years at the David Mannes Music School before moving to California in 1927 where she established a studio in Santa Barbara. In Santa Barbara she started her quarter-tone experiments. The first work in this medium was the ballet, Xanadu, which was performed in the production of Eugene O’Neill’s Marco Millions in the Lobero Theatre. Besides quarter-tone works, Mildred Couper wrote incidental music for plays at the Lobero, and also a Dance-Opera And on Earth Peace, etc.