Music Meets Drama

Finding the few surviving Branscombe Choral members as well as my acquiring the two Branscombe Choral scrapbooks has been a joy. Those dear books, one dated from 1934-1944 and the other 1944-1954, have been in my possession for over four years. I have gone through the yellowed pages of programs, letters, telegrams, newspaper articles, reviews, meeting agendas, mailing lists, and pictures all lovingly scotch-taped onto the pages of the scrapbooks. Branscombe Choral member Emma Davidson was the creator, keeper and conservator. The Davidson family lovingly protected the books through three generations until they came to me. These scrapbooks are filled with memories of a women's chorus created 76 years ago, then disbanded 56 years ago. A piece of history that impacted the musical life of New York City and the lives of the members who adored their conductor and leader. Touching the fragile pages one can nearly feel the vibrancy of life for those 20 years the chorus rehearsed and per...

A 60 voice women’s choir….women coming to rehearsal after work or commuting into New York from New Jersey or Connecticut to sing and perform…women dedicated to the existence of the Branscombe Choral from 1934-1954. For 20 years these women performed Christmas concerts at the Broadway Tabernacle Church and in the Spring at Town Hall. There were Christmas carols to be sung for the commuters at Grand Central Station and Pennsylvania Station, radio broadcasts on WJZ and WOR, concerts at the first United Nations in Spring Lake Park and at the World’s Fair. Dedication, music making and friendship centered around their leader, fund raiser, organizer, inspiration and conductor, Gena Branscombe. As I read the sections about the Branscombe Choral in Dr. Marlow’s dissertation I kept wondering if I would possibly find one of the Choral members…maybe even interview her? Finding someone who actually knew Gena as a conductor and teacher would add depth of character for my one-woman show. W...

Now we return to the history of my Gena Branscombe Project. With a few fantastic diversions for performances in Texas and Georgia, plus the purchase of Gena’s sheet music, we revisit the development of my CD and one-woman show. Martin and I continued recording throughout mid to late 2001. Sessions were intense yet with the support of wonderful Martin and our recording engineer David Smith we continued to make progress. One session during this time comes to mind. Just four days after the events of 9/11 here in New York City, we were scheduled to record. I seriously thought about cancelling our reserved time in the studio yet thought better of it as we needed to move forward. Saturday, September 15, 2001 was a particularly arduous recording session. We were trying new microphone placements in relation to the piano to get a better balance and sound. Maybe a small piece of carpet under my feet would help, maybe the piano needed to be closer, maybe a different microphone would ...

Hunting for Gena Branscombe’s published music has become a hobby for me. In my first blog post I wrote about an original three-measure manuscript that I found online. Searching E-bay and other internet sites countless times for Gena’s sheet music has made me lucky enough to buy many of her compositions. Along the way I communicated with sellers asking if they had any of Gena’s other works or if they would be so kind as to remember me if they found additional songs or piano works. I have made E-bay/internet vintage sheet music friends! Many of the sellers went to my website and read about my project and commented what a remarkable story I have told over the past 10 years. Of all these transactions and communications the most recent one touches my heart deeply. Listed on E-bay was a book of piano pieces Gena had published in the early 1900’s. I quickly put a bid on it then waited for the days to pass, all the while hoping I won the auction, and, of course, I did. The seller notifie...

Nearly three and a half years ago I had the pleasure of meeting Barbara Dana, wonderful actor and author. Our friendship began as we lost our mutual friend, Tim, and as we were both dealing with our deep sense of loss. I soon learned that Barbara was writing a young adult book about Emily Dickinson, "A Voice of Her Own." Now published and for sale at AMAZON.com. Her author's journey included years of researching Emily, her life, her poetry and her very essence as a person. At the time of our meeting Barbara was finishing her writing and close to submitting the manuscript to her publisher. What an act of love and admiration for one of our nation's most beloved poets. Barbara's passion for Emily Dickinson was infectious. Once her book was published her dream was to create an Emily one-woman show with text taken from her book. I asked Barbara if she would be open to collaborating on this project by adding song settings of Emily’s poetry. She quickly responded, “Ye...

In our crazy and wonderful music business one is never sure where or when our next performance may come to us. We will work diligently to send our publicity packets to the right people, try to market ourselves and network as best as we can. Then, what seems to be out of left field, we will receive a phone call or an e-mail inviting us to perform in a place we had not imagined. In the early days of my Gena Branscombe project I came across the music of composer Kathleen Lockhart Manning. I considered recording a few of her songs which did not happen, yet I kept her music in mind for future concerts. In November 2008 I was again drawn to Lockhart Manning's music and began an internet search for some of her songs. Up came a website "Lanning not Manning" and to my surprise I found mezzo-soprano Rebecca Lanning was doing a project on Lockhart Manning in the vein of my Gena project. I was thrilled to find someone who had found a woman composer whose life and music needed...

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...