 In Minneapolis, he was a member of the faculty of MacPhail School of Music from 1919 to 1966, and the director of music at Blake School for Boys (1934–43) and conductor of civic pageants.His compositions include a one-act opera "The Quartet", a comic opera "Katrina", the operettas "The Merry Mexican" and "Ichabod Crane", incidental music to Josephine Preston Peabody's drama "The Piper", two musical comedies, and overture "The Taming of the Shrew", oratorio "The Raising of Lazarus", and orchestral scherzo "A Joyous Prelude", and other works for chamber piano and violin, and songs.Manuscripts of Avery's musical work can be found at the University of Minnesota Music Library and at the Hennepin County Library Minneapolis Central Library Special Collections department which also has biographical information, newspaper clippings, photographs, obituary, and scrapbooks.