Music Meets Drama

Friends will surprise you with the most wonderful, thoughtful gifts.   During a visit with Ina Torton, friend, massage therapist extraordinaire and real estate agent, she handed me a beautiful volume of Emily Dickinson poems.   Gold lettering, white lilies with gold stems and a bee on a turquoise blue cloth cover.   Beautiful, just beautiful.   Having gone through her bookshelves, Ina came upon this volume of Emily's poems and gave it to me.   What an appropriate gift as Ina knew that along with my friend, Barbara Dana, our Emily Dickinson show, “A Voice of Her Own” had just had its second reading here in New York City .   In November 2011, “A Voice of Her Own” had its first reading for an invited audience. See my blog posting of February 24, 2012.  My ending statement was that the show was a work in progress and indeed over the past year, we have worked hard as a team….Kate Bushman, Barbara Dana, Martin Hennessy, Amelia Campbe...

Having composed 150 art songs during her long career, Gena Branscombe’s vocal works were performed by renowned opera singers of her era who gloried in singing beautiful, romantic music. A famous person putting forth her music in concert meant audience members might seek her out, then purchase her sheet music! In addition to the well-known singers, there were voice teachers, Broadway and Vaudeville performers, oratorio and recital specialists and even church choir members who promoted the expressive and lilting songs by Miss Branscombe. During a number of our talk-backs after performances of “Life! Love! Song! A Visit with Gena Branscombe,” Martin and I have answered questions about Miss Branscombe’s life, family and music, our work together and much more. One of the questions that seems to recur is, “Who sang her songs during her lifetime? And, where did they perform them?” Now for the answer to those questions. Recently I purchased a copy of her song, “The Morning Wind” an...

March 12, 2012, an e-mail from Melissa Maize, Director of Resource Development at the Good Samaritan Society Quiburi Mission in Benson , Arizona ,   “ I believe that one of our residents, Mary Jo Steebner, is in your photo! Please contact me.” The photo mentioned is of the Branscombe Choral performing at Town Hall in 1949 and is posted on my website. Of all the stories I could recount about my contact with former Branscombe Choral members or their family members, the one that touches me the most is Melissa’s.   A resident in their dementia unit, who though not very communicative, had told Melissa she had sung with the Branscombe Choral.   There were no family members or friends to corroborate Mary Jo’s life journey.   Melissa asked if I would have any information that would help her engage her resident to tell her story.   My response was that Miss Steebner had been a member for only one concert, December 1954, the final concert of the...

Aross America in the early part of the 20 th century planned communities were being created to satisfy the need for urban areas and new housing.  Rural lands were forfeited to development.  Imagine Mountain Lakes, New Jersey in 1910;  a woodland locale with pristine terrain, rolling hills, woods and boulders and then a mere 10 years later in the 1920s, it was a full-fledged and developed community.  New residents were escaping from New York City and learning to commute to their jobs in the city on the newly completed train line. What has Mountain Lakes , New Jersey got to do with Gena Branscombe?  Well, I’m glad you asked. Leaving their residence at 1 West 82 nd Street in Manhattan in the summer of 1922, Gena Branscombe and her husband John Ferguson Tenney moved their family of three girls to Mountain Lakes , New Jersey .   Eldest daughter Gena had developed asthma which made the move necessary. For two years the fam...

Community music organizations are the backbone of classical music in the United States .  Whether you have a community concert series that presents well-known artists, a local symphony orchestra or chamber music society, area choruses or a grass roots group that presents concerts on a year-round basis, all are promoting and presenting great music to their local people.  These organizations rely on their year-round residents to sell or purchase tickets, promote the concert by word-of-mouth, make brownies or hors d’oeuvres for the reception and then be in the audience.  Creative concert planning is a must for in this day and age, it is a struggle to find interested audience members and volunteers, yet somehow concert societies persevere and the reward is great.  For forty-six years the Friendsof Music at Guilford ( Vermont ) has been presenting concerts to the public in the Brattleboro area.  Starting with an organ recital in a rural barn in the ...

As we walk down streets looking in store windows, display items can trigger memories of objects or people from our past. Several months ago The New York Times published a picture of a conductor’s baton lying across an opened music score. That picture jarred Pierre Biscaye’s memory. He signed on to his computer to look for any information he could find on conductor/composer Gena Branscombe. Why?  As a child, Pierre knew Miss Branscombe who visited his family’s home and had dinner with them. She gave one of her conducting batons to him and one to his sister, Peggy. The baton and music in the Times’ picture reminded Pierre of that special gift from Gena Branscombe.  Upon my return from performing in St. Louis last November, there was a message from Pierre on my answering machine. Searching for information about Miss Branscombe, he found my website, read about my project and then, contacted me. What followed over the next few weeks were phone conversations with journe...

Arthur Branscombe, nephew of Gena Branscombe, passed from this life at age 93 on February 10, 2012. Arthur and his family were one of the surprises of my Gena project. When I wrote my last blog, my opening sentence was about surprises that have come my way while working on my Gena project. As I said, the surprises are not daily or weekly yet they arrive and are a joy. In mid 2011 I received an e-mail from Allison Branscombe…..another Branscombe yet someone I had not met nor had I known of her. Allison’s opening sentence said she was Gena Branscombe’s great niece and that her father Arthur, age 92, was Gena’s nephew. This was a surprise! Over the past 12 years I have often wondered about Gena’s family especially her brother Clarence who was born August 15, 1871. He was 10 years older than Gena. I knew little about Clarence and wondered if he had children, and if he did, would there be a family connection for me to contact. Then, came Allison’s e-mail and a whole new...