Music Meets Drama

  Over the years of working on this project, questions about the address of the Branscombe home in Picton were unanswered.   Even the Historical Society could not seem to narrow down the address, though they knew it was West Mary Street.   During our walking tour on the day of the Picton concert, August 15 th , we walked on West Mary stopping in front of 76 West Mary Street.   Liz Driver, who led the walking tour, explained the probability of the house being the home of Gena Branscombe’s family.   Local landmarks were noted yet the question of “was this the Branscombe home?” remained. Several hours later at the “From Picton to the World” concert, Liz met Sheila and Wayne Van Soelen.   Sheila is a cousin of Gena Branscombe’s.   The Van Soelen’s have done extensive research into the Branscombe genealogy.   It was possible that Wayne knew of connection between Gena, her brother Clarence and the Jones family.   With more information at her disp...

#BringingBackBranscombe  

  For over a year, The Gena Branscombe Project had been developing a concert that honored the first women composers who in 1924 were invited to join the National League of American Pen Women.   Identifying the composers, researching their works, making a list of titles, finding a theme for the program, then slowly choosing which pieces would form the   program may seem tedious, yet, “Winds of Change, Songs of Time: The Musical Legacy of the National League of American Pen Women”   was a success. With many thanks to Board member Regan Russell for creating a program celebrating the four seasons which featured 10 woman composers who were among the first to join the Pen Women and we included one 21 st century composer was genius!   Again, thank you, Regan! On February 28 th , “Winds of Change, Songs of Time: The Musical Legacy of the National League of American Pen Women” was performed at the New York Society for Ethical Culture.   With performances by p...

  Christmas Eve – the year 1906 - classical music was first broadcast on the radio from Brant Rock, Massachusetts.   Over the air-waves people heard a phonograph recording of Handel’s “Largo.” Reginald Fessenden and F.W. Alexanderson were the inventors’ team who created the broadcast with Fessenden closing the program with, “Merry Christmas.”   A few short years later in 1910 Enrico Caruso was heard live from the Metropolitan Opera House in New York City.   Radio became a major venue for classical music and by 1920 and into the 1930s programs such as “Bell Telephone Hour,” “Voice of Firestone,” and “Cities Service Concerts” filled the air with classical music.    Arturo Toscanini led the NBC Symphony Orchestra. Live broadcasts from the Metropolitan Opera were heard.  These performances drew large audiences.    Families gathered around their radios to listen to great performances by the top classical musicians of the day. Those 20 years of...

  “I’ve been a wedding photographer and worked in a winery, all to support myself as an artist.”   - Will Wickham Are there people in any field of the arts who would not have a list of jobs they have worked to support the art that fills their soul and an art that allows them to share their creative beauty?  I would think not!   My friend, Will Wickham, was recently honored in Times Square as one of the recipients of a grant from “Creatives Rebuild New York” (CRNY) which was a three-year, $125 million initiative that provided guaranteed income and employment opportunities to artists across New York State.  On the very cold, blustery evening of Wednesday, January 15 th in Times Square, several of the recipients of these grants were honored.   A video of each artist was played on one of the huge screens.   Larger than life each artist told the story of the jobs that supported their art – a photographer, clothing designer, dancer, painter, and weaver....

  The glass ceiling for women conductors is being shattered this summer when three women lead performances of Wagner’s operas at the Bayreuth Festival.   YES!   In  2021, Ukrainian Oksana Lyniv became the first woman to conduct at Richard Wagner’s theatre, Bayreuth.  Wagner initiated his company in 1876 ---- it only took 145 years for a woman to conduct there.  Maestra Lyniv debuted conducting “Der Fliegende Holländer (The Flying Dutchman)” and has returned this summer to lead that same opera. Simone Young , the first Australian conductor at Bayreuth, will lead performances of Wagner’s “Ring Cycle.” She is the first woman to ever perform those four wonderful operas at Wagner’s Bayreuth festival ---- 147 years after its founding.   French conductor Nathalie Stutzmann made her Bayreuth debut in 2023 leading performances of “Tannhauser.”   She returns this summer to lead an open air concert and “Tannhauser.”     Congratulations...

  I n 1911 instrumentalists from the New  York Philharmonic, singers from the Metropolitan Opera, composers and church musicians organized and formed The Musicians’ Club of New York.  It is one of the oldest such clubs in the United States.  "The organization was formed to establish a higher standard of ethics in the various branches of the music profession and to bring a better understanding and closer fellowship among musicians." Two of the club’s presidents were Walter Damrosch,  one of Gena Branscombe’s conducting teachers, and Olga Koussevitzky, wife of conductor Serge Koussevitzky.   The Musicians’ Club of New York funds the annual Young Artist Awards, a competition for living composers and an International Recording Award.   Quite impressive! On December 12, 1954 at the prestigious Musicians’ Club of New York, the Branscombe Choral led by Gena Branscombe performed Christmas music on an afternoon concert.   They were joined on that pr...

  Back in 2005 I received an e-mail from Elsa Jean Davidson informing me she had in her possession the two Branscombe Choral scrapbooks that dated from 1934-1954.   Her grandmother and mother had been members of the Choral and were   keepers of the scrapbooks.   The scrapbooks were handed down to Elsa Jean to preserve.    The Branscombe Choral scrapbooks  reside with Gena Branscombe’s collection at the New York Pu blic Library for the Performing Arts.  Scrapbooks – books that hold mementos, pictures, documents, dried leaves or flowers, postcards, letters, announcements and more.   They help us reach back to precious memories of times gone by whether joy-filled, bittersweet or sad.   Scrapbooking is personal storytelling! In 1872 Mark Twain, the author of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, patented a self-pasting scrapbook that had an adhesive grid pattern on each page.   Who knew this famous auth...