Music Meets Drama

Preparing art song recitals has always been one of my great loves.  Choosing a theme or a story to tell through songs, then, hunting through countless volumes and stacks of music by assorted composers, finding just the right poetry and songs that fit my idea takes hours and hours of research.  My hope always is that the 15-20 art songs I choose to perform will be a musical challenge for my pianist and me, then the audience will be engaged for a musical journey of not only poignant but entertaining songs.  Yes, this is a lot of work however it is work that brings me joy.   Over the July 4 th weekend of 2014, pianist Julia Bad y and I performed at the Deerfield, Massachusetts’ Memorial Hall Museum. Since this was the celebration of our nation’s independence, why not celebrate America’s poets and composers?  My research took me to anthologies of American songs and song cycles ….. what set our country apart, what songs would best depict life in Amer...

Performing my Gena Branscombe show is always a delight and something I enjoy doing. Yet, there are more facets to music making and I have tried to develop those interests and avenues of performance. Imagine my surprise this past June when I met Dr. Eleanor Elkins, Assistant Professor of Piano at Angelo State University, who invited me to perform on a recital with her as accompanist and share the the program with the University's trumpet teacher, Dr. John Irish. A return to something I love to do, perform art songs of various composers with poetry by the great writers, creating a mini drama in three minutes of a song. I love the creative process of finding composers whose songs blend together a story over the evening of a recital. My usual way of researching is to pull music scores from my personal library, open each book, read through songs, search the poetry for a hint of a theme for the recital. I leave the scores open to songs and scatter th...