Music Meets Drama

American women’s artistic creativity is mind boggling. Attending the Women in the Arts Conference at the University of Missouri St. Louis was a great testament to my opening statement. Dr. Barbara Harbach organized an inspiring conference that fostered women’s accomplishments and acknowledged the diversity of women as creators. Martin and I performed our Gena show the evening before the conference opening. A warm, receptive audience awaited us and at the “talk back” we were greeted with questions about Gena Branscombe and her era. Once again, we made friends with wonderful, caring people. Women from across the United States came to St. Louis to present concerts and lectures about their books, poetry, music, art and documentary films. Two evening concerts featured music of composer-in-residence Beth Denisch of Berklee College. With three days of presentations, it would be difficult to single out one woman presenter as the best. Every woman who particip...

One thousand women raising their voices to American music…..1000 women! Imagine a stage filled with 1000 women dressed in formal gowns. How large was the stage? What music would a chorus that size be able to perform? How many rehearsals did they have to prepare for the concert? Who sponsored the concert? Who organized the concert? Who was their conductor? Obviously, the answer to that last question is Gena Branscombe! One of the centerpiece stories of my one-woman show is Gena Branscombe’s membership in the General Federation of Women’s Clubs . Her participation on the Executive Board for the Golden Jubilee Convention in 1941 that took place in Atlantic City, New Jersey, is told with excitement. There she was conducting a chorus of 1000 women singing her music. One can only imagine the thrill of hearing those women sing together. This past November, Gena Branscombe’s grandson, Roger Phenix, said he had something he wished to give me. What family treasure could...

Many of my blog posts of the past have made mention of Gena Branscombe and John Tenney’s four daughters. There have been pictures of the girls added to the blog entries showing a small slice of their family life. I have not written about the lives and careers of the Tenney girls so now it is time to bring them forward as an important part of Gena’s life as a working mother and musician. Gena and John were married October 5, 1910 at the First Methodist Church of Picton, Ontario. Shortly thereafter, they made their home in New York City. Family life had to have been hectic with two working parents. Each day Gena devoted time for her career with the help of a nurse to care for the children. As an accompanist she coached and prepared singers for performance. Meetings with woman composers such as Amy Beach, Harriet Ware and others took place in her piano studio. Gena’s involvement with women’s organizations and her conducting duties took a great deal of her time, yet, there was alway...

An angry graduate student ….a composition major at the Hartt School of Music……the year 2001. What could possibly anger someone who is studying music and composing at a fine music school? Not one women composer was represented on the school’s concert programs whether it be chamber music, choral, piano, orchestra or instrumental …..not one woman composer’s music was being performed and that was unfair and wrong. Anger…..now how to turn that anger into action and create a showcase for women composers. Meet Heather Seaton who declared, “I will go on this journey to found a women composers’ festival.” With not a penny in her pocket to pay performers, print programs, for publicity or even to hire someone to manage her festival, Heather set forth over the next nine years growing her Women Composers Festival of Hartford into a celebration honoring music of women of all ages. The underdog, unknown and accomplished composers, senior citizens and a high school student now would have a v...

Honorary inductions into Greek fraternities and sororities are bestowed upon celebrities and outstanding people within their respective fields. There are professional fraternities and college sororities or fraternities whose admiration of a prospective candidate offer membership. During her lifetime three Greek organizations granted membership to Gena Branscombe. Honored as a leading women composer, conductor and pianist of her day her earliest initiation came in 1925 as one of the first Honorary Members of Delta Omicron International Music Fraternity, a professional women’s fraternity. The international women's social, cultural and service organization, Beta Sigma Phi, initiated Gena as an honorary member in 1952. At their 1941 convention held in Edgewater Gulf, Mississippi, Zeta Tau Alpha initiated Gena as a Grand Chapter Initiate/National Honorary Member. This fraternity was founded in 1898 at the Virginia State Female Normal School. Still going strong today...

Wm. H. R. Drake, elegantly written on the top right hand corner of “Love in a Life” and “A Lute of Jade,” song cycles by Gena Branscombe. Published in 1907 by G. Schirmer of New York, “Love in a Life,” is six song settings selected from Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s “Sonnets From the Portuguese” poetry. This very song cycle drew me to Miss Branscombe’s songs for the third song in the collection is “How Do I Love Thee?” and the one I performed on a Valentine’s Day recital in Florida. Now I own the original published work. Though I have no idea what year Mr. Wm H. R. Drake purchased the music, it cost him a total of $1.25. Softly stamped on the title page is Chandler-Ebel Music Company, 22 Livingston Street, Brooklyn, New York. Owning my second original publication of the “A Lute of Jade,” I now have one for Soprano/Tenor and one for Alto/Bass. Soft green lettering on a brown cover held together with the maroon cord. Mr. Drake paid $1.00 for the song cycle. I have no i...

A husband in the early 1900’s …..the social mores of the day seem to tell us that he would have been head of the family, the sole bread winner, what he said was the word of the household, and family life revolved around him at his beck and call. Household duties such as cleaning, meals, entertaining and the raising of children would have been his wife’s duties. Imagine my surprise when I first met and interviewed Gena Tenney Phenix and her husband, Phillip, and asked Mr. Phenix what his father-in-law was like. His answer was straightforward, “My father–in-law was a saint.” Not quite expecting that answer, I hesitated before asking him to explain himself. Mr. Phenix proceeded to inform me that his father-in-law, John Ferguson Tenney, Gena Branscombe’s husband, was a man ahead of his time and one who fiercely believed his wife’s career was as important as his own. Gena and John’s marriage was one of equality. So who was John Ferguson Tenney and how 100 years ago did he become a...