Gena Branscombe

Gena Branscombe (4 November 1881 – 26 July 1977) was a Canadian pianist, composer, music educator and choir conductor who lived and worked in the United States.

Chicago became her home for the next eleven years as she became financially self-sufficient through her accompanying, teaching private piano lessons and having her songs published.

No doubt his deep appreciation of the rich, lush and complex harmonies of the German Romantic era greatly influenced Branscombe's compositions.

Her harmonies are intricate, rooted in the understanding of how dissonance and resolution affect word painting in her songs and instrumental works.

Fifteen male students attended the event, at which an early quintet of Humperdinck's was performed and a Schumann quartet was played.

During her year in Berlin, Branscombe and her fellow student, Belle Forbes, performed at a private dinner party given for president and Mrs. Theodore Roosevelt.

Upon returning home in the summer of 1910, Branscombe began preparations for her marriage to John Ferguson Tenney on 5 October in Picton.

Due to the patriotic subject matter of her oratorio and the many awards presented to her, the Music Department of the Library of Congress in 1960 requested Branscombe's original orchestral score and orchestra parts for Pilgrims of Destiny.

The oratorio was a family effort with Branscombe writing the libretto with the help of her husband, John, who researched the passenger lists of those on board the ships sailing to America.

Prominent opera and concert singers of the era performed her art songs on recital programs across the United States and in Europe.

In 1908, Metropolitan Opera soprano Lillian Nordica performed Branscombe's "Hail Bounteous May" during a national recital tour.

Many renowned recitalists of the period including David Bispham, Norman Jolliffe, Gladys Buckhout and George Hamlin performed her songs regularly.

The Golden Jubilee Convention of the General Federation of Women's Clubs, held in 1941 in Atlantic City, New Jersey, featured a mass chorus of one thousand members from across the United States conducted by Gena Branscombe.

During Gena Branscombe's lifetime, 22 different music companies published 74 of her choral compositions, 150 art songs, 13 piano pieces and 8 instrumental works.

Her publishers included Arthur P. Schmidt (promoter and publisher of American women composers), Wa Wan Press, Oliver Ditson of Boston, Gustave Schirmer, Summy Birchard, HW Gray, J. Fisher, Hatch Music Company of Philadelphia, Whaley Royce and Company and Boosey-Hawkes.