Music Meets Drama

The article below, written by John Lyons, pictures The Old Drug Store in downtown Picton, Ontario.  Gena Branscombe's father ran the store as well as having a dentistry office upstairs.  Click on the picture/article to read the history of the Allison and Branscombe families.   #BringingBackBranscombe  

#BringingBackBranscombe  

  Get to know The Gena Branscombe Project’s 2026 Conductor scholarship winner, Valentina Paolucci! She is a rising orchestral conductor and violinist currently based in New York City.   A recent graduate from the Juilliard School with a Masters Degree in Orchestral Conducting, she was awarded the Robert Craft-Igor Stravinsky Conducting Award upon graduation. Valentina is currently a Conducting Fellow with The Chelsea Symphony and Music Director of the NYO-USA Alumni Orchestra at Carnegie Hall. (Valentina with her winner's coffee mug) Valentina spent several weeks this summer at the Domaine Forget Académie internationale de musique et de danse in Saint-Irénée, Quebec being inspired with beautiful music making and learning from world renowned conductors Yannick Nézet-Séguin and Kensho Watanabe. The culmination of her weeks of lessons and coachings was the honor of conducting the Orchestre Métropolitain in the final concert.  Completing her weeks in Canada, she quickly lef...

  Receiving this envelope with Dan Ryan’s message to me…..well…there are not enough words to describe how it touched my heart and what it meant to me after many years of working on the music and life of Gena Branscombe.   That envelope held programs from the “From Picton to the World: Bringing Home the Music of Gena Branscombe” concert.  Only after leaving Picton did I realize I had not picked up extra programs for my own archive.  Thanks to Dan’s sister, who was making a trip to New York City, I was handed the envelope!  And, there was this message….which speaks of the very essence of Dan Ryan.  (By the way, Alexis is Dan’s wife and Sagan is their adorable dog.) Working with Dan, my friend and colleague, over the past eight years has been a privilege and blessing.  Dan is a high energy, creative and brilliant ideas person.  He leaves me in wonderment as to how I was blessed to have him as Co-Founder of The Gena Branscombe Project.  It wa...

 

  A week spent in Picton, Ontario, Gena Branscombe’s hometown, was a week spent immersing ourselves in Gena’s history.   Whether it was donating items to the museum, being in the Picton United Church where her family was members, or walking the streets realizing that many of the buildings and homes were in existence while she grew up; we were in her space!  In early July an email from Diane Berlet of the St. Alban’s Centre in Adolphustown arrived in my inbox.   Just a short drive and ferry ride from Picton, Diane invited The Gena Branscombe Project people to the St. Alban’s Centre for a guided tour of the Centre, previously a church.   Diane’s narration described the importance of the church and surrounding area to Gena’s family.   Her mother’s extended family, the Allisons, were settlers who received parcels of land for farming and were members of the church.   An added reason for our invitation was to see the candlestick holder and plaque over the ...

  In late 2025 as Dan Ryan and I began preparations for a Gena Branscombe concert in her hometown of Picton, Ontario, we prepared a list of organizations, concert series and people we would like to meet.   We were hopeful they would guide us through the process.   Over multiple Zoom meetings we were met enthusiastically for bringing Gena’s music home and their help was offered without hesitation!   Speaking with Jessica Chase and Liz Fennel of the County Museums, we learned that in their collection the museum held a framed copy of Gena’s choral piece, “Our Canada from Sea to Sea,” with a picture of school children inserted in the frame.  That is the only item they had!  How to increase the number of Gena Branscombe items for their collection?   Over 28 years of working on Gena’s music and life, I have managed to collect or buy Gena items from E bay or Amazon.  Sheet music, magazine articles, letters along with pictures and memorabilia from Br...

  There will be many postings about the “From Picton to the World: Bringing Home the Music of Gena Branscombe” concert which took place Saturday, August 15 at the Picton United Church.    How did the concert go?   Below three of the performers, and, one of their mother’s, answer that question.   From tenor – Michael Faulkner who posted on Facebook on August 15 th after the concert:   “Earlier today, I had the honour of taking part in a very special concert celebrating the music of Canadian-American composer **Gena Branscombe** in Picton, Ontario.   It was an incredible afternoon of voice, piano, violin, choral music, and even an audience sing-along. These beautiful works continue to live because of the passionate people who are dedicated to bringing them back into the concert hall—not as forgotten history, but as vibrant, living art.   This is a truly worthwhile project to support. Beyond restoring the music of women composers like Gena B...

  In the near future, there will be many more postings  about the Gena Branscombe concert in her hometown of Picton, Ontario. With many thanks to Margaret Haylock and the Wellington Times for the article linked below! https://www.google.com/url?rct=j&sa=t&url=https://wellingtontimes.ca/branscombe-comes-home/&ct=ga&cd=CAEYACoUMTczMzI1NTcyNDU2MTE4MDcyNzEyGjEwYmNmZjIyZjJiMmVhYmU6Y29tOmVuOlVT&usg=AOvVaw2aPuVFdDa3DVmwv_WdkQF6 #BringingBackBranscombe

  #BringingBackBranscombe

Today the Picton Gazette published an article about the upcoming "From Picton to the World: Bringing Home the Music of Gena Branscombe" concert.  A great article explaining the importance of Gena Branscombe and our work to bring her home!  Please join us on August 15th at the Picton United Church.....4 PM. https://pictongazette.ca/post/the-countys-composer #BringingBackBranscombe

  #BringingBackBranscombe

  Harley Winzenried , (they/she), The Gena Branscombe Project’s 2026 Arts Administrator scholarship winner, is a Vermont-based theatremaker. Harley has been described in the press as displaying "skill beyond her years," and their work is guided by the objective of providing a space for the stories of historically excluded voices to be shared.  They are the founder and program director of the Historically Close Friends new play development project, a program of Between The Willows, Burlington's premiere queer theatre & dance company. They are also  a member of The Furnace, an artists' collective that programs ensemble-driven theatre & donation-based skill-sharing opportunities. In the education realm, Harley serves as the Festival Associate for the Young Playwrights Festival at the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center and volunteers as a theatre educator & program coordinator at Camp Treetops in the Adirondacks. Vermont locals may have seen Harley's ac...

  Interlochen Public Radio (IPR) broadcast Scene VI of Gena Branscombe's dramatic oratorio "Pilgrims of Destiny" during the week of July 4th.    Gena Branscombe, with colorful orchestration, her own words set in beautiful vocal lines, proclaims the pilgrims' joy as they  site their new found home "AMERICA."  Enjoy listening and watching this video from the Clark University Concert Choir, Orchestra and Soloists performance from April 2019!   And, many thanks to IPR for broadcasting the finale of Gena Branscombe's  "Pilgrims of Destiny."   #BringingBackBranscombe

Hannah Mufuka The Gena Branscombe Project’s 2026 Composer scholarship winner Hannah Mufuka is a composer and sound artist from Decatur, Georgia. She is a recipient of a 2025-2026 Kenan Fellowship at the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, where she developed and premiered an original composition, Mbira, My Love . In 2024-2025, she was a See/a/change fellow, where she collaborated on two environmental arts pieces, both of which premiered at the Winston-Salem Arts Council in 2025. Hannah Mufuka has worked with various ensembles, such as the Golden Hornet Quartet, Decoda, the European Recording Orchestra, and Ensemble Intercolor, and her compositions have been presented in the United States and Europe. Additionally, as an Emerging Composers Program Fellow at the Imani Winds Chamber Music Festival, she premiered a new composition, Osprey , at the Juilliard School.  Currently, Hannah continues to lean into her passion for environmental advocacy through the NC Climate Justice Colle...

  The Gena Branscombe Project is proud to announce our 2026 Scholarship winners. Congratulations to Harley Winzenried, Arts Administrator; Hannah Mufuka, Composition; and Valentina Paolucci, Conductor. These outstanding people are carrying on Gena Branscombe's legacy of dedicated work in the arts. Also, a special thank you to a patron who generously donated this year's scholarship money.

  ·          Women Composers on Women Composing "I have never been able to understand women composers who do not wish to be called women composers. I understand their argument but it seems so superficial to me. Our strength lies in our identification with women and music."   Beth Anderson, Composer #BringingBackBranscombe Photo credit:    Molly Sheridan, NewMusicBox. B B

I will be featuring quotes from women composers about their journey, their perceptions of being a woman composer and how the world perceives their works.  Enjoy!   I start with Miss Branscombe, of course.     “Composers are people born with some sort of sensitive inner mechanism that picks up sounds – vibrations – which other people do not hear.   Composers feel that there is a Realm of Music, a place where it exists in its perfection, and that they can tune in to it, as it were. Composers feel that they’re just channels, humanly speaking, through which the music flows.   And the truly great composers are those born with a mechanism so good that they hear more clearly than lesser composers.” And the truly great composers are those born with a mechanism so good that they hear more clearly than lesser composers.” Gena Branscombe speech presented at Beta Sigma Phi circa 1957 #BringingBackBranscombe

One Eye Publications has released Gena Branscombe's " Violin and Pianoforte Volume 2 " and the Suite for Piano, " When Joan of Arc was a Little Girl. " These wonderful pieces of music are available for sale NOW! http://www.oneeyepublications.com/. #BringingBackBranscombe #OneEyePublications #ViolinPianofortepieces #WhenJoanofArcwasaLittleGirl #PianoSuite #WomanComposer #GenaBranscombe

 Over the past 27 years wonderful musicians have contacted me asking about the music of Gena Branscombe.  Most often these musicians are singers wanting suggestions for programming Gena’s songs for their recitals. It’s an absolute joy to share this repertoire with them and offer to coach the singers on the interpretive style.  Nearly two years ago I was told that mezzo-soprano Jade Espina had performed Gena’s “Lute of Jade” song cycle.  Listening to her sing these songs with great attention to phrasing and understanding of the text while gorgeously sung was a thrill.      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XXGxfcogRh0 Several weeks later Jade and I spoke by phone.  What a great conversation we had.  Jade assured me she loved performing the song cycle and in the future would definitely be programming more of Gena’s songs.  She was helping The Gena Branscombe Project lay the path to having Gena’s 150 songs considered for recitals! ...