Nelson Ojeda Valdés
There in front of me was a Facebook ad - “Women of Romanticism” - concert to be held at the New York Society for Ethical Culture on March 12, 2022. Hmmmm, that caught my interest, sounded interesting and I should probably attend. I purchased a ticket not knowing any of the performers yet the composers Fannie Mendelssohn Hensel, Cecile Chaminade and others were familiar to me. As I sat through the concert all I could think was, “Meeting these talented and gifted performers is going to happen. We will, some day in the future, collaborate on a Gena concert.” That was just the beginning of what now is three years of friendship and concertizing. After the concert I approached soprano Stefanie Izzo introducing myself as an authority on Gena Branscombe. Stefanie is an authority on women composers….. a lot of women composers, yet she had not heard of Gena. We agreed to be in touch to discuss Gena songs fo...