Music Meets Drama

  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...

May 2026 has been bursting with wonderful news for women in music.   First came the Pulitzer Prize in Music awarded to Gabriela Lena Frank for her work “Picaflor: A Future Myth,” a 10-movement symphonic work.   The composer drew on Incan mythology telling the story of a hummingbird trying to save a future world from ecological disaster.   Commissioned and premiered by the Philadelphia Orchestra, the performance was conducted by Marin Alsop. The work was grounded in her California experience living on a farm near Mendocino close to the devastating Camp fire of 2018.   While receiving the news of her Pulitzer Prize award, Ms. Frank was at the Metropolitan Opera where rehearsals for her opera “ El Último Sueño de Frida y Diego , ” were happening prior to its opening.    The Pulitzer Prize in Music was established in 1943 with the first award going to William Schuman.   Ms. Frank joins the ranks of great women composer Pulitzer winners among them are...

  Over the past six years The Gena Branscombe Project has awarded scholarships to up-and-coming composers, conductors and arts administrators.   One of our missions is to stay in touch with our winners, post their accomplishments on social media and to meet them in person when the occasion arises.   We also try to attend their concerts or at least watch them live streaming! Recently Co-Founder Dan Ryan and our 2020 Composer scholarship winner, Damali Willingham, crossed paths at a gig they did.   Damali was Assistant Conductor and Dan sang with The Refugee Orchestra Project on their March 1, 2026 concert in Methuen,   MA.     Several years ago Damali rea lized Gena Branscombe’s “Festival March/Prelude” from manuscript into a score for wind ensemble.   She conducted the premiere of that score at Berklee College of Music in Boston.   It’s been a pleasure meeting Damali for lunch or coffee and attending concerts she has conducted.   She...

  Over the years of writing my blog I have discovered and promoted women conductors.  It has been a joy learning about these women, their education, the path they took to get where they are, which orchestras and opera companies they have conducted and more.  Each time I find a new woman conductor I want to write about her and share her on my blog.  Words are my way of promoting these wonderful musicians.   Ruth Reinhardt has been appointed Music Director of the Rhode Island Philharmonic Orchestra.   She is the fifth music director in this orchestra’s   80 year history and the first woman conductor to hold the position!     With a deep interest in promoting late 20 th century and early 21 st century European women composers she has conducted works by Grażyna Bacewicz, Kaiija Saariaho, Lottta Wennäkoski as well as Daniel Bjarnsason and Thomas Ades.   She has not forgotten the symphonic greats leading orchestras in performances of ...

 In late August my Bar Harbor friend, Dr. Bill Horner, flew to Lahti, Finland to attend the Sibelius Festival.  Bill has become quite a Sibeliophile listening to the composer’s symphonies, tone poems and reading his biography.  Bill shared the diary of his trip that included his review of the three Sibelius concerts he attended.  Through his writing I learned of conductor Dalia Stasevska.  Bill admits to not having the credentials of a music critic, yet, his review of Maestra Stasevska is quite accurate, I am sure; “her conducting style spot on: her baton arm marked a tempo that even I could follow, and her left made long sweeping motions that imparted her evident passion to both her orchestra and to me.” Another woman conductor has crossed my radar screen and one whose career is worth researching and writing about on my blog! Dalia Stasevska was born Kyiv, Ukraine in 1984.   Her family moved to Finland when she was five. Her music training began on the...

Among conductor Xian Zhang’s many accomplishments are eight seasons of being Music Director of the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra, Principal Guest Conductor of the BBC National Orchestra and Chorus of Wales and the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra.  With the Philadelphia Orchestra she won a Grammy Award for the Deutsche Grammophon release Letters for Future .  As guest conductor she has appeared with the Metropolitan Opera, Los Angeles Philharmonic and the Boston Symphony Orchestra.   Quite impressive!   Add to those accomplishments, she is the new Music Director of the Seattle Symphony having signed a five-year contract beginning in the 2025-2026 season.  Another land mark for her, Zhang is the first woman to lead a major West Coast orchestra.  Congratulations to Xian Zhang and many thanks to the Seattle Symphony Orchestra for choosing a woman conductor who will lead your orchestra into the future.   #BringingBackBranscombe

Congratulations to The Gena Branscombe Project 2024 Scholarship Winners! Emily Clements - Composer Braeden Weyhrich - Conductor Maclain Hardin-Kurza - Arts Administration #BringingBackBranscombe  

 When my phone rang this morning with the caller being a friend from Bar Harbor, Maine, where I had performed countless times with conductor Shirley Smith, I knew what news might be coming.  Shirley had died yesterday.  A large Maine coast ocean wave of sadness washed over me.  Shirley…..how does one describe Shirley Smith?   Down home, no nonsense, wore jeans, t shirts and sneakers to rehearsal, rugged enough to survive numerous brutal Maine winters and damaging ice storms, honest, sentimental, lover of dogs, a good musician and organist, a good conductor, crazy sense of humor whose contagious laughter sent sparks of delight through a room.   For 23 years she led the Acadia Choral Society in programs from the Mozart “Requiem,”   Verdi’s “Requiem,” opera choruses, Purcell’s “Ode on St. Cecilia,” a staged version of “Dido and Aeneas,” Brahms’ “Requiem,” creative Holiday programs and much more.   Her chorus was always well prepared and her orchest...

  The Gena Branscombe Project has been in existence for five years.   In 2024 we will be awarding scholarships to an up-and-coming arts administrator, conductor and composer for the fifth consecutive year.   It has been an honor to follow the career paths of our winners. This past Saturday our 2021 Conductor’s Scholarship winner, Micah Gleason, conducted her graduation concert at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia.   Choosing a program of De Falla’s “Three Cornered Hat, Suites 1 & 2, Jessie Montgomery’s “Coincident Dances” and the Sibelius Symphony No. 1, Micah led the orchestra in a subtle and exciting performance of each of these works.   Micah has carried on Miss Branscombe’s belief in education that will further a career, mentoring those with whom she works and dedicated work that leads to performing music with the highest standards possible.   Below is the link to Micah’s concert.   Listen and you will understand why she won The G...

  The Gena Branscombe Project is proud to announce the "Bringing Back Branscombe to the Upper West Side" concert on Saturday, May 6th, 5 PM at the New York Society for Ethical Culture - 2 West 64 Street. https://www.eventbrite.com/.../bringing-back-branscombe... We hope you will join us for a concert of French Horn pieces, a violin sonata, piano works, song and choral pieces all representing Miss Branscombe's ties to the Upper West Side. Below is the Eventbrite link for purchasing tickets. See you May 6th. https://www.eventbrite.com/.../bringing-back-branscombe...  

  A new photo of Gena Branscombe appeared in my e-mail thanks to her grandson, Roger.  What a lovely picture it is.   By the style of the dress, hat and handbag, I would guess the photo was taken in the 1940s.  Looking closely at her hands, she is holding a baton.  On the back of the picture it says, “Gena at our Spring luncheon.”   I presume the luncheon would have been the Branscombe Choral Spring luncheon.  No date or identifying information is given.    

Found in the New York City Municipal Archives was a March 15, 1949 recording of the Branscombe Choral performing on WNYC.  The women’s chorus was led by “one of America’s foremost woman musicians,” Gena Branscombe.  The four pieces featured on this broadcast were arrangements of folk tunes about the out-of-doors and the beauties of nature: 1.       “Girls in the Garden” -   arranged by H.A. Schemerling 2.         “O River Flowing Dark and Wide” – A Czech folk tune – arranged by Gena Branscombe 3.       “The Soldier” – a Kentucky folk tune – arranged by Katherine Davis 4.       “Murmur on, Sweet Harp” – a newly discovered Stephen Foster song – arranged by Gena Branscombe The year 1949 marked the 15 th Anniversary of The Branscombe Choral with members celebrating at an anniversary dinner.   They began the year performing on WNYC, the...

Every other blog entry I make seems to be about Gena Branscombe items that have been given to me or that I purchased from E-bay or Amazon websites.  This past week two people sent me Branscombe items.  From the daughter of Agnes Conway, a Branscombe Choral member, I received 45 rpm records of the December 1953, Spring and December 1954 performances the Choral gave at the Broadway Tabernacle Church and Town Hall.  Thank you to Mary Conway for these recordings.  Agnes Conway passed away on December 31, 2017.  I am fairly sure she was the last Branscombe Choral member.   From the grandson of  Branscombe Choral member, Marie Zieres, I received her choral folder.   Covered in red fabric, the folder matched the robes and hats the women wore for their concerts.   Neatly tucked inside the folder were the programs from the Choral’s December 1949 and May 1950 concerts.   The small treasure inside the folder was a receipt made ou...