Music Meets Drama

A 60 voice women’s choir….women coming to rehearsal after work or commuting into New York from New Jersey or Connecticut to sing and perform…women dedicated to the existence of the Branscombe Choral from 1934-1954. For 20 years these women performed Christmas concerts at the Broadway Tabernacle Church and in the Spring at Town Hall. There were Christmas carols to be sung for the commuters at Grand Central Station and Pennsylvania Station, radio broadcasts on WJZ and WOR, concerts at the first United Nations in Spring Lake Park and at the World’s Fair. Dedication, music making and friendship centered around their leader, fund raiser, organizer, inspiration and conductor, Gena Branscombe. As I read the sections about the Branscombe Choral in Dr. Marlow’s dissertation I kept wondering if I would possibly find one of the Choral members…maybe even interview her? Finding someone who actually knew Gena as a conductor and teacher would add depth of character for my one-woman show. W...

Now we return to the history of my Gena Branscombe Project. With a few fantastic diversions for performances in Texas and Georgia, plus the purchase of Gena’s sheet music, we revisit the development of my CD and one-woman show. Martin and I continued recording throughout mid to late 2001. Sessions were intense yet with the support of wonderful Martin and our recording engineer David Smith we continued to make progress. One session during this time comes to mind. Just four days after the events of 9/11 here in New York City, we were scheduled to record. I seriously thought about cancelling our reserved time in the studio yet thought better of it as we needed to move forward. Saturday, September 15, 2001 was a particularly arduous recording session. We were trying new microphone placements in relation to the piano to get a better balance and sound. Maybe a small piece of carpet under my feet would help, maybe the piano needed to be closer, maybe a different microphone would ...