Music Meets Drama

The Gena Branscombe Project has been hard at work scheduling concerts.  See the Upcoming Concert Dates on this flyer!  If you are in New York City on February 28, 2026 or in Boston on March 16, 2026, please reserve a ticket.  Those concerts feature the music of the original women composers who in 1923 were invited to join the National League of American Pen Women.  We honor these trailblazing composers.  We then have concerts at Houghton University and Picton, Ontario, Gena Branscombe's hometown.  Stay tuned for more! # BringingBackBranscombe

  Good news to share.   The Gena Branscombe Project will be represented at the National Opera Association conference in Boston, MA, January 6-10, 2026.   Emily Clements, the Project’s 2024 Composer scholarship winner and her co-librettist, Bonita Bunt, will discuss their original opera-in-progress, “Letters to Lily”, for the New Works Expo. Dan Ryan and I will participate in the Poster Session displaying the history of The Gena Branscombe Project that includes our mission of awarding scholarships to up-and-coming composers, conductors and arts administrators, sponsoring Bringing Back Branscombe concerts, publishing the composer’s nearly forgotten music and bringing awareness of her oratorio, “Pilgrims of Destiny” as well as her orchestral works.     We look forward to being at the conference and meeting all the attendees.   #BringingBackBranscombe

  Over the years that I have written my blog, Arthur P. Schmidt publisher, has been the topic of three of my postings.   His company, The Arthur P. Schmidt Co. of Boston, Leipzig and New York, was a premiere music publishing company of the era.   As I have said in my previous posts, Mr. Schmidt promoted American composers and in particular American women composers.   He was a person of vision, of musical integrity with his belief in our nation’s composers.   BRAVO, Mr. Schmidt. Recently an October 2017 blog posting titled, “Why don’t we talk about Arthur P. Schmidt”? came to my attention.   The blog was written by a student at St. Olaf  College in Minnesota who was taking the course: Music 345: Race, Identity, and Representation in American Music .    What struck me about this posting was the sense of discovery, observation, understanding of the music world in the world of business, conclusions made and a new awareness of the important ...

The Gena Branscombe Project has merchandise!   For sale is promotional merchandise that supports our mission of #BringingBackBranscombe and increases our scholarship funds.     Go to the hyperlink below and purchase t-shirts, sweatshirts, mugs and stickers with our logo or pictures of Miss Branscombe conducting.   And, we suggest musical organizations program the music of women composers. For another 20 hours today, September 6 th , we have a discount sale.   It’s back –to-school-time, the holidays are a few short months away.   Buy The Gena Branscombe Project merchandise as special gifts for friends and family.   Someone in your circle of friends and family needs a new coffee mug with an image of Gena Branscombe! https://www.teepublic.com/user/the-gena-branscombe-project?utm_source%20=designer&utm_utm_campaign=PBZpaMBXqn0 By purchasing any of our items you are helping us fund our yearly scholarships granted to an up-and-coming arts ad...

  Today The Gena Branscombe Project announced its 2023 Scholarship Winners.   Congratulations to Conductor Hannah Nacheman, Composer Brittney Benton and Arts Administrator Roslinde Rivera!   These three women exemplify Miss Branscombe’s belief in the importance of education to further one’s career and life.   They are dedicated to professionalism, integrity, being leaders and promoting inclusivity for composers, conductors and arts administrators with whom they will have contact.     It is an honor to keep Gena Branscombe’s legacy alive awarding these yearly scholarships.   Applications for the 2024 scholarships will be accepted   in March 2024.   Keep watching for the official announcement.   Go to www.thegenabranscombeproject.com to read more about The Project and this year’s scholarship winners.      #BringingBackBranscombe

It has been an honor and wonderful experience to work with the creator and producer, Matt Spangler,  of the podcast "The Ladies Speak."  This past November outside Boston we recorded the new episode about Gena Branscombe.   Miss Branscombe's passion filled life of music, women composers, American music and especially education is highlighted in this episode.  We, The Gena Branscombe Project, carry on the example she set for us.  https://www.the-ladies-speak.com/episodes #BringingBackBranscombe

  At the bottom of Gena Branscombe's letter she wrote, “My loving thoughts go out to you –I never forget you.   Noone should mind being older, life is just better and better.”   The letter’s envelope is post marked May 23, 1968, has 6 cents of stamps on it and is addressed to Mrs. Marie Zieres.   Over the thirteen years of writing my blog, Music Meets Drama , I have written about Gena Branscombe’s prolific letter writing three times.  A number of her original letters to friends, colleagues and former Branscombe Choral members have become a part of  my Gena collection.   In June 2008 Dan and I drove to Jamestown, NY to meet Marie Zieres, a former Branscombe Choral member.  Just weeks before our visit with Mrs. Zieres, the Branscombe Choral scrapbooks had come into my possession.  In their protective boxes, the scrapbooks also made the trip to meet Mrs. Zieres.  Before our arrival she had brought out her remembrances of being a Choral me...

  Carnegie Hall sits on the corner of 57 th Street and 7 th Avenue in New York City.   B uilt in 1891 the hall continues to be a center piece of the city’s musical life to this day.   There are a myriad of great classical musicians’ spirits hovering around that venerable stage where they once performed.     Only classical musicians?  NO!  Carnegie Hall has hosted fund raisers for orphans, peace concerts, Broadway shows done in concert format, jazz concerts, international peace and political action lectures.    On April 5, 1918 the outer lobby of this revered space was decked out with banners and a poster of Uncle Sam.   Over the stage hung posters for the national war savings campaign and a picture of large guns and fighting men which stated, “These boys are giving their lives will you lend your quarters?” Another poster encouraged women of America to save their country.   What was the occasion?   The world famous cont...

    “ German born Arthur Schmidt (1846-1921) was a trailblazer for American composers and in particular American women composers.  In my mind and opinion he broke down barriers, sought out potential that could be developed into the brightest and best.  He proved that the word composer had no gender bias to it….a composer is a composer whether man or woman!”  This quote is from my January 2011 blog posting.   The “Elusive Mr. Schmidt” blog posting in April 2013 explained that in all of his business papers at the Library of Congress there was not one picture of him.   Schmidt’s great granddaughter contacted me and sent me her great grandfather’s picture.   He was no longer elusive.     This will be my third blog I have written about Mr. Schmidt.   He was a publisher extraordinaire who in the late 19 th and early 20 th centuries promoted and published American composers.    That era was about publishing ...

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...

  “Declassified: Women Composers Hiding in Plain Sight”.   What an interesting title for a blog written by Melissa Wertheimer, Music Reference Specialist, at the Library of Congress.   Click on the link below and read about Melissa’s first days working for the Library of Congress, finding a picture of five women composers with no identification.   Her search through the Library’s various collections to solve the mystery of the five women in the photo is intriguing. https://blogs.loc.gov/music/2018/05/women-composers-hidden-in-plain-sight/ The five women are (left to right):   Phyllis Fergus, Ethel Glenn Hier, Amy Beach, Harriet Ware and Gena Branscombe.  They were in Washington, DC having been invited to join the League of American Pen Women.  These five were the elite women composers of their day.  This past November, Melissa presented her research in a lecture also entitled, “Declassified: Women Composers Hiding in Plain S...