Music Meets Drama

An e-mail from Allison Charney arrived in my mailbox asking me how to pronounce Gena Branscombe’s first name.   She went on to explain that with her colleague and friend, Donna Weng Friedman, the two would be hosting four one-hour radio shows featuring women composers entitled -   Her/Music:Her/Story.   The shows were broadcast on WQXR on four consecutive Friday evenings at 9 PM starting on September 13 th .    The first show celebrated the 200 th birthday of pianist/composer Clara Schumann (October 13, 1819 – 1896).   Allison and Donna took us on a journey discussing Clara’s life as a piano prodigy, wife to composer Robert Schumann, mother of eight children and composer.   Interspersed with their informative discussion were examples of Clara’s music - piano, instrumental and vocal.   The second broadcast was the Three B’s: Lili Boulanger (1893-1918), Gena Branscombe (1881-1977) and Amy Beach (1867-1944).   How c...

In 2018 two recordings were released that included works by Gena Branscombe.   Orchestral music of American composers from the late 19 th century and early 20 th century represents one of the CDs.   The second recording features the piano music of 13 American women composers.   American Romantics III garnered the Lansdowne Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Reuben Blundell, the Ernst Bacon Memorial Award for the Performance of American Music.   Recording the music of David Stanley Smith, Carol Busch, Edward MacDowell, Charles Wakefield Cadman, Cecil Burleigh, Ludwig Bonvin and Gena Branscombe – not all the composers are familiar names to everyone, the music is beautiful and a tribute to  the wide range of American music.   Congratulations.   Gena’s piece on this CD, “A Memory” was originally composed for violin and piano.   As a gift to the founder, Edwin Fleisher, of the Philadelphia Symphony club, composer William Happich arranged...