Earlier today the funeral of
former Branscombe Choral member, Agnes Conway, was held in East Rockaway, New
York. She died at the age of 95 on
December 31st. I send her
daughter, Mary, and extended family my sincerest sympathy for their loss.
When Martin Hennessy and I
performed, Life! Love! Song! A Visit with Gena Branscombe, at Hofstra
University in 2008, Agnes attended the performance.
An ad for our concert appeared
in her local newspaper. She ordered
tickets for herself and her daughter.
Days before seeing the ad, she had been sorting through her possessions
trying to decide what to keep and what to throw out. When she came across her Branscombe Choral
memorabilia, she chose not to throw any of it away. After making the arrangements to attend our
concert and much to our surprise, she gathered her Branscombe Choral pictures,
programs, letters and more, cross-stitched book covers, put the items in
binders and gave me her treasured possessions. 
As I have said frequently in
my blog postings about Branscombe Choral items and Gena Branscombe personal
letters that come my way, I am astounded by how long the women of the Choral
held on to these items. Gena Branscombe
was not only charismatic, a fine conductor, a well-rounded teacher of music but
also a kind, caring human being who cherished the people with whom she came in
contact. In return for Gena’s dedication
to the Branscombe Choral, the women singers were loyal members who performed to
the highest ability they could muster for their conductor.
In the Fall of 1953 Agnes
joined the Branscombe Choral on the suggestion of a friend. She performed the Christmas concert of 1953
at the Broadway Tabernacle Church, the spring 1954 Town Hall concert and the
final Branscombe Choral concert of Christmas 1954 again at the church. For fifty four years Agnes preserved her
programs, personal letters, pictures and articles about Miss Branscombe.
Since 2008, Agnes and I were
friends on Facebook. We occasionally
communicated by e-mail. As part of an
ongoing project about Miss Branscombe, I asked Agnes to please answer a list of
questions about Miss Branscombe, her rehearsal and conducting style, and her
own personal experiences singing with the Choral. She graciously and with great detail took the
time to type answers to each and every question.
Agnes may be the last
Branscombe Choral member to have died.
If there are other members alive, they have not found me nor I
them. A passing of an era as 63 years has
gone by since the Choral’s final concert.
The universal language of
music is a mystery, something that words fail to define yet our mind frees our souls
to absorb its impact on us. In Agnes’s
case, music’s subtle language touched her as a member of a women’s Choral
performing with a revered conductor. How
lucky she was.
