Maestra Ruth Reinhardt

 

Over the years of writing my blog I have discovered and promoted women conductors.  It has been a joy learning about these women, their education, the path they took to get where they are, which orchestras and opera companies they have conducted and more.  Each time I find a new woman conductor I want to write about her and share her on my blog.  Words are my way of promoting these wonderful musicians.

 

Ruth Reinhardt has been appointed Music Director of the Rhode Island Philharmonic Orchestra.  She is the fifth music director in this orchestra’s  80 year history and the first woman conductor to hold the position! 

 With a deep interest in promoting late 20^th century and early 21^st century European women composers she has conducted works by Grażyna Bacewicz, Kaiija Saariaho, Lottta Wennäkoski as well as Daniel Bjarnsason and Thomas Ades.  She has not forgotten the symphonic greats leading orchestras in performances of Brahms, Rachmaninoff, Dvorak, Stravinsky and Bartok!

 

Studying violin and composition in Zurich, she furthered her conducting studies at Juilliard under the tutelage of Alan Gilbert and James Ross.  For two seasons she was assistant conductor with the Dallas Symphony and a Dudamel Fellow with the Los Angeles Philharmonic. 

 

Maestra Reinhardt has conducted the New York Philharmonic, Cleveland Orchestra, San Francisco Symphony. Stockholm Philharmonic, Frankfurt Radio Symphony, Seoul Philharmonic and many more! 

 

Her inaugural concert with the Rhode Island Philharmonic is  Friday, September 19^th when she conducts Gershwin’s “Cuban Overture,” Billy Childs “Diaspora: Concerto for Saxophone” featuring Steven Banks, and ending the concert with Brahms, “Symphony No. 4.”

 

Congratulations to Maestra Ruth  Reinhardt and wishing her many years of wonderful music experiences with the Rhode Island Philharmonic. 

#BringingBackBranscombe

 

Florence Macbeth, Coloratura Soprano

 

The summer of 2023 I completed transcribing what I thought were all of Miss Branscombe’s letters to her publisher, Arthur P. Schmidt.  As I wrote in my blog of that July, it was a journey of dedication to her legacy as well as an eye-opening learning experience of her humanity, business acumen and musical genius.  Also in those letters her every day life of emotions, ups and downs, raising children, losing her husband and two daughters came alive. 

One problem arose as I transcribed the letters from 1910-1954, somehow I had missed scanning the years 1921 and 1922.  Well, we’re all human when under time constraints.  I missed those two years.

My recent trip to the Library of Congress allowed me the time to right my mistake.  I scanned the folders of letters from 1921 and 1922.  Returning home I began to transcribe those two years of letters. Doing so allows me to travel back to that era, imagining her life’s experience at that moment and I read with interest Mr. Austin’s replies.  Mr. Austin worked for the Arthur P. Schmidt Company.   In the years leading up to and following the death of Mr. Schmidt in 1921 he was the main correspondent to all of the composers the Schmidt Company published.

 In her letter dated September 1, 1921, Gena requests that Mr. Austin send soprano Florence Macbeth a copy of her song, “The Best is Yet to Be” in the high key.  I stopped typing as I had never heard of Florence Macbeth.  Who was she?  Relying on a quick Google search, I learned Florence Macbeth (1889-1966) was born in Mankato, Minnesota, a place where her musical training began at an early age  which led to an international career.

 She became a star at the Chicago Opera Company and the Metropolitan Opera.  Her high coloratura voice has been reported as being effortless with an ability to move between her lowest register to her highest notes without a break in sound.  She concertized regularly in Europe and the United States.

What’s interesting about Miss Branscombe’s 1921 letter is three years prior to that letter, Florence Macbeth made her New York City Aeolian Hall debut in March 1918.  On that program she performed songs of women composers of the day including Mana Zucca, Harriet Ware, Rosalie Hausman and Gena Branscombe.  These women composers were friends, colleagues and well known in their era.  The New York Times reviewer highly praised Miss Macbeth for her choice of an artistic recital of charming songs! 

Here is yet another famous singer who over 100 years ago performed Miss Branscombe’s music on her concert tours.  How did Gena and Florence meet?  How did they connect for Gena to introduce or give Florence her songs and then have her perform them?  Questions are unanswered!

#BringingBackBranscombe

Lauren Koszyk, David Carlton Adams, Laura Clapp - The Gena Branscombe Project's 2025 Scholarship winners

 Here are the winners of the 2025 Gena Branscombe Project scholarships.  Read their bios and see what a talented group of people won the scholarships.  

Lauren Koszyk is an arts administrator, collaborative pianist, and educator based in the Dallas–Fort Worth area, pursuing her Master of Business Administration in Music Business and Doctor of Musical Arts in Collaborative Piano at the University of North Texas. She works with leading arts organizations including the Cliburn, Frances Clark Center for Keyboard Pedagogy, and the International Keyboard Collaborative Arts Society, and she serves as Assistant Artistic Director for CollabFest, the first international conference dedicated exclusively to collaborative piano. As an educator she cultivates inclusive, empowering learning environments and was named a 2023 Top Piano Teacher by Steinway & Sons. As a pianist, she has performed across Austria, Canada, Italy, and the United States, including engagements with Illinois Festival Opera, Midwest Institute of Opera, Musiktheater Bavaria, Opera on Site Inc., Opera Seme, and University of North Texas Opera.

David Adams is a composer, performer, teacher, and organizer who composes, performs, and presents new instrumental, vocal, and electronic music spanning contemporary chamber music, opera, improvisation, rock, and more. A doctoral student of composition at the Peabody Institute at Johns Hopkins University, David teaches music theory at Peabody and has one year left in his doctorate. His works have been performed by leading new music ensembles, sometimes featuring David as a singer, electronicist, or fretless electric guitarist. A co-founder of New Uncertainty Collective, he builds creative relationships and fosters musical community while trying to help the world toward becoming a little healthier and a little more whole.

Laura Clapp is a graduate student in choral conducting at the University of Michigan, where she directs the university’s prison outreach choir, Out of the Blue. Prior to graduate studies, Laura worked with Voices of Hope, a Minneapolis-based prison choir organization, as a recipient of the Yale Glee Club Service Through Music Fellowship. While in Minnesota, Laura also co-directed StreetSong, a choir for people who have experienced homelessness, and directed the choir at Peace United Methodist Church. Laura has served as a soprano and teaching artist with Border CrosSing and currently plays violin in a string quartet at U-M. During her time as an undergraduate student at Yale, Laura served as a student conductor of the Yale Glee Club and a researcher for the New Muses Project, contributing to their database of women and BIPOC composers.

Among a large group of highly qualified applicants, these winners stood out for their clear dedication to the mission outlined by The Gena Branscombe Project: promoting equity and inclusivity in music. Each will receive a $400 cash prize and recognition across the web.

CONGRATULATIONS, ALL!

#BringingBackBranscombe

The Gena Branscombe Project 2025 Scholarship Winners

And, The Gena Branscombe Project 2025 Scholarship winners are:

Lauren Koszyk - Arts Administration

David Carlton Adams - Composer

Laure Clapp - Conductor

Congratulations to these talented and dedicated people!  

 #BringingBackBranscombe

Library of Congress- Music Reading Room - Gloves

 

Walking into the Library of Congress Music Reading Room on Monday, August 4th, this was the scene at the request counter.....research gloves hung out to dry.

Brittle, old and deteriorating paper manuscripts, scores, pictures and articles often must be preserved and protected by wearing white gloves.  Human hands with their natural oils and hand cream could make these treasured items weaken or fall apart, thus the gloves.

Over the weekend, these gloves had been washed and were now drying on the counter top.  Visiting researchers would be wearing the gloves in the next few hours.

Ah, the life of a researcher!

#BringingBackBranscombe

Library of Congress - August 2025

 Gather four people together; discuss dates for travel to the Library of Congress in Washington, DC - August 4, 5 and 6; plan for our individual research projects with our collective interest in the archives of publisher Arthur P. Schmidt of Boston; alert the Library of Congress we will be there on said dates – all this planning created a memorable three days in our nation’s library.

(John Adams Building - Library of Congress)

 Who were these four people?  Dr. Derek Strykowski who is authoring a book about Arthur P. Schmidt, his life and his impact on music publishing in America; Linda Johnson, great granddaughter of Arthur P. Schmidt with her interest in reviewing all the business records and letters from which she would learn more about her great grandfather; Dr. Regan Russell who wrote her dissertation on Gena Branscombe’s 150 art songs was reading women composers' letters written to Schmidt and then, well, me who you know has an interest in Gena Branscombe and whose publisher was Mr. Schmidt! 

 

Paul Sommerfeld, Senior Music Reference Specialist, knowing we were descending upon the Music Reading room assembled a display of items from the Arthur P. Schmidt Publishing Company archives.  Business ledger books, a photo of Schmidt’s home in Boston, an Amy Beach manuscript score and much more.  Joining us that first day was Robin Rausch, former Head of Reader Services, Music Division who is now retired.  Robin and I have known one another for nearly 17 years.  

 

Now it was on to our research.  We filled out our request slips for various items from the Schmidt archives, once the boxes arrived we settled into our individual research.  Stopping for lunch we were joined by Melissa Wertheimer, former Music Reference Specialist and now Senior Digital Collections Specialist for Web Archiving. 

 A few years ago Melissa presented a lecture on the first women composers who joined the National League of American Pen Women in 1924.  There we were over lunch -  Paul, Robin, Melissa, Regan, Derek, Linda and myself sharing our lives and music interests. 

(from left to right - Linda Johnson, Kathleen, Melissa Wertheimer, Regan Russell, Robin Rausch, Derek Strykowski)

Back to researching, then, dinner where once again lively conversation abounded despite our exhaustion from all we had read and photographed.  Sleep was, oh so, welcome that evening.

More of the same research on Tuesday and Wednesday - Schmidt boxes being called to our reading tables, sharing those boxes with one another, sharing our special finds.

(left to right - Kathleen, Paul Sommerfeld, Linda Johnson, Derek Strykowski)

From those three days spent at the Library of Congress we came away having made new friends with like-minded interests.  We are thankful for the experienced, helpful and kind group of Music Specialists at the Library. Their knowledge of the collections in the Library is unbeatable.   They have the ability to move from reading table to reading table offering advice to one person working on an 18^th century subject or another person researching a music theater collection and there we were working on Arthur P. Schmidt. I use this word honestly, these Music Specialists are amazing. 

(Note the picture behind Mr. Schmidt, top row, second from the left - Gena Branscombe - the very picture that was in her file in the Schmidt archive - see below)
 

Frequently I will say that using the internet for research is great, yet, when you befriend a librarian, their knowledge of your subject matter opens up a wide super highway of research materials which they happily share with you. Human contact….never forget the importance of human contact in our technology driven society.

#BringingBackBranscombe

Women's Philharmonic Advocacy

With special thanks to Dr. Liane Curtis of the Women's Philharmonic Advocacy for the opportunity to author an article promoting Gena Branscombe's instrumental works.  The mission of The Gena Branscombe Project is to encourage performances of these works. Spread the word that these scores are available!  Enjoy the read!

https://wophil.org/composer-gena-branscombe-exploring-her-music-with-orchestra/?doing_wp_cron=1752931492.9277789592742919921875 

#BringingBackBranscombe