but affectionately” as “'Aunt Marion' for her matronly manner and appearance, and even for her classes, which were conducted so as to be suitable for occurrence at teatime in a genteel parlor.” He too describes Bauer as generous and sensitive, particularly in terms of guiding her students' careers, but also in terms of her writing due to the fact that she mentions so many composers and organizations. Religious affiliation Despite her birth to Jewish immigrants, Bauer appears not to have been an observant Jew in adulthood. Although Bauer's memorial service was conducted by a rabbi, she was cremated thereafter, which is forbidden by official Jewish law. Additionally, both Maurice Peress, a former student, and Frederic Stoessel claimed that Bauer practiced Christian Science, a claim further supported by a letter Bauer wrote in 1923 expressing “a desire to publish a song appropriate for a Christian Science service.” No official confirmation of Bauer's religious affiliation has been found yet, however. Sexual orientation Bauer never married, and much of her personal life remains a mystery. She lived with and was supported by her sister Emilie until Emilie's death in 1926. At that point, Bauer went to live with her other sister Flora who also lived in New York City, a living arrangement that lasted until Flora's death in the early 1950s. Although unconfirmed, Ruth Crawford Seeger's writings, when considered along with remarks by Martin Bernstein (former chair of NYU music dept.) and Milton Babbitt, imply that Bauer may have been a lesbian. Crawford and Bauer met at the MacDowell Colony in 1929, where Bauer quickly became a mentor and close friend to the much younger Crawford. Although Crawford preferred to characterize their relationship as one of “sisterly-motherly love,” she also acknowledged that at one time, their relationship had bordered becoming sexual, particularly on Bauer's part when she reserved a single hotel room for the two of them at the International Festival of Contemporary Music in Liège in September 1930, which made Crawford “uncomfortable.” Along with Crawford's perceptions of her relationship with Bauer, Martin Bernstein, a longtime friend of Bauer's and a former chair of the NYU music department, stated: “[A]s a female, [Bauer] had very little interest in men (emphasis in original)...At least if she had any romantic liaisons with men, we don't know about it.” Babbitt further substantiated Bernstein's thoughts during an interview about Bauer when he remarked, “And she was very