Music Meets Drama

  At the bottom of Gena Branscombe's letter she wrote, “My loving thoughts go out to you –I never forget you.   Noone should mind being older, life is just better and better.”   The letter’s envelope is post marked May 23, 1968, has 6 cents of stamps on it and is addressed to Mrs. Marie Zieres.   Over the thirteen years of writing my blog, Music Meets Drama , I have written about Gena Branscombe’s prolific letter writing three times.  A number of her original letters to friends, colleagues and former Branscombe Choral members have become a part of  my Gena collection.   In June 2008 Dan and I drove to Jamestown, NY to meet Marie Zieres, a former Branscombe Choral member.  Just weeks before our visit with Mrs. Zieres, the Branscombe Choral scrapbooks had come into my possession.  In their protective boxes, the scrapbooks also made the trip to meet Mrs. Zieres.  Before our arrival she had brought out her remembrances of being a Choral me...

  “As I looked at the young Queen and her husband, Prince Philip, on their visit to New York, it seemed that she was filling her role with great dignity but also with some weariness. How very young this couple looked—and how we do make our visitors work!”   (Eleanor Roosevelt diary entry, October 26, 1957)   On October 21, 1957 and for a mere 15 hours, Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip were in the United States for their first state visit.  During those hectic hours they were honored with a ticker-tape parade on Broadway, had lunch with dignitaries at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel, followed by the Queen’s speech at the United Nations and a return to the Waldorf Astoria for dinner.  The dinner was co-sponsored by the English-Speaking Union of the United States and the Pilgrim Society of the United States.  At 2 AM the royals were at Idlewild Airport where they boarded a plane for a return to the United Kingdom.  Yes, this is the same Queen; Queen Elizab...

  Posted on The Gena Branscombe Project Facebook page on May 9, 2022 was the following: Tuesday, May 3 rd at Berklee College of Music in Boston, Gena Branscombe’s 1913 composition “Festival Prelude/March” was given its 21 st century premiere.   The Gena Branscombe Project 2020 conductor scholarship winner, Damali Willingham, not only conducted the performance but also arranged this orchestral piece for wind ensemble.   Willingham poured musical talents into the arrangement creating a score filled with lush textures, delicacy of melody and rhythmic drive.   Damali conducted the piece with authority knowing every note and phrase then drew it together with her ensemble to make heartfelt music.   The Gena Branscombe Project thanks Damali and professor, Dr. Dominick Ferrara, for your dedication to this beautiful piece of music.   Now to get this piece published!   The concert was indeed wonderful.   The Gena Branscombe Project sponsored a pos...

Defining what promoting a woman composer or women composers is in one’s life can be perplexing.   Is it a job?   Is it detective work uncovering or digging up something from the past?   Is it a mission?   Is it a passion?   Is it fun or a hobby? Maybe it is a combination of all of these.   We have wrapped ourselves in a blanket of passion that fills our lives as a job whose title is being a mission driven detective while having a delightful time learning something new and something not taught in those college music history classes!     We eagerly pursue new ways and avenues to promote women composers through blogs, presentations, published articles, performances, recordings, interviews, social media and podcasts.   We work to get out the message that women have existed as composers as long as men have – always! I would consider my many years of work on the music and life of composer Gena Branscombe as an absolute passionate joy of a job! ...

In early April, The Gena Branscombe Project announced that their 2022 scholarship applications are open.   We welcome and encourage up and coming arts administrators, conductors and composers to apply.   Go to our website - www.thegenabranscombeproject.com/scholarships to fill out the application.     Over the past two years The Gena Branscombe Project has offered these three scholarships to honor the legacy of composer, conductor and arts administrator Gena Branscombe.   With her personal belief in hard work, her determination to compose music steeped in the tradition of the 19 th century German Romantic period and her role as a leader and promoter of American music, she set an inspiring example for everyone.       Education is the gateway to achieving your music career goals.   You have until May 15 th to apply for one of these scholarships.     #BringingBackBranscombe

  Ludwig van Beethoven, Jean Sibelius, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, JS Bach, Frederic Chopin, Anton Bruckner, Robert Schumann, Giacomo Puccini, Giuseppe Verdi, Johannes Brahms, Luigi Boccherini, Sergei Rachmaninoff, Hector Berlioz, and Richard Wagner.  What do all of these composers have in common?  First, they are all men and second, they have statues of their likeness in public squares across Europe and some in the United States.    Chris Wiley, of London, England, recently posted on Facebook that a statue of composer/suffragette Dame Ethel Smyth (1858-1944) had been unveiled in her home town of Woking, England.   The unveiling, appropriately, was held on International Women’s Day, March 8 th .     Dame Ethel Smyth’s legacy as a composer and suffragette is exemplary for those of us who have come after her.   She studied at the Leipzig Conservatory.   She   met Clara Schumann and J ohannes Brahms.   She composed instrumental...

 The great German composer, Richard Wagner (1813-1883) wrote challenging and complex operas including” Parsifal,” The Ring Cycle,” “ Lohengrin,” “ Die Meistersinger, “ “Tristan und Isolde”  and many others.  The vocal demands on singers who perform roles in these operas are great.  The vocal lines are long and complicated supported by an orchestra of 100 musicians.  Wagnerian singers are the royalty of opera singers and are in demand.   Less than thirty years after Wagner’s death, American bass-baritone Putnam Griswold (1875-1914) became known as the leading interpreter of Wagner’s   heroic bass roles.  His success did not come overnight and required years of training.    Born in Minneapolis, Minnesota and raised in California, Griswold Putnam followed a business career.  At the age of 22 he discovered his singing voice.  He began his training in California, studied in London, Paris, Frankfurt and Berlin.  His...