Category: Archives

Celebrating Native American Heritage: Fred Cardin “Pejawah” (Composition ’27)

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Curtis alumnus William Frederick Cardin (Composition ’27), known to his colleagues as Fred, and Pejawah (“Big Cat”) to the Miami Quapaws of Oklahoma, was an accomplished composer, conductor, and violinist. Throughout his pioneering career, Mr. Cardin endeavored to raise national awareness of Native American music and art as an integral part of mainstream American culture. In an interview with the Philadelphia Inquirer from 1950, he stated: “The music of the Indian tells a story of those trees. It talks of flowers and grass and hills and valleys in a language all America should know. It is an important and valuable part of the Nation’s heritage, and it should not be allowed to die.” i

Born into the Quapaw Tribe of Miami, Oklahoma, in 1895 to John Alexander Cardin and Martha Etta Kenoyer, Mr. Cardin’s musical talent was recognized and nurtured from an early age, and he began studying the violin at St. Mary’s Catholic School. In September of 1910, at age fifteen, he was admitted to the Carlisle Indian Industrial School. There, his musical talents were encouraged and supported by the school’s music director, Fred Stauffer, and he was allowed to practice two hours per day while the other students were playing sports. He graduated in 1912 and pursued his violin studies at the Dana Musical Institute in Warren, Ohio, for three years, with the financial support of the school’s superintendent, Moses Friedman. Under the tutelage of violinist Jacob Gimbel, he was given the support to perform freelance engagements around the U.S. to build his reputation as a musician of note.

Fred Cardin’s extensive formal musical training allowed him to understand the beauty and complexity of Native American music from a theoretical viewpoint; more specifically, he admired the polyrhythmic quality and frequent use of quarter tones. In the Philadelphia Inquirer interview, he also stated, “The universal thing in music is rhythm, and in this, the Indian excels.”

In 1914, Mr. Cardin intended to perform at the World’s Fair in San Francisco but was hired as a violinist with the Chautauqua Institute in New York. Unfortunately, he fell ill with typhoid fever and returned to Oklahoma to recover and receive medical treatment. The twenty-one-year-old violinist seemed to have lost his footing but was then admitted to the Conservatoire Americain in Fontainebleau, France, where he studied composition under Nadia Boulanger alongside Aaron Copland. During this time, Mr. Cardin built an excellent reputation for himself as a violinist and regularly performed recitals, including both classical repertoire and Indianist compositions.

In 1916, Mr. Cardin became the first violinist of the Indian String Quartet, a group formed by the Indianist composer Ruthyn Turney. The string quartet was comprised of members, each with Native American affiliation: the second violinist was Alex Melodivov of the Aleut tribe in Alaska, the violist was William Palin of the Flathead tribe in Montana, and the cellist was William Reddie of the Hydah tribe in Alaska. Much like Fred Cardin’s individual concerts, the program was often divided in half: first, the classical selections performed in tuxedos, and second, the Native American compositions performed in traditional Native American regalia, thus merging traditional European repertoire with Indian-inspired aesthetics through quartet arrangements of Native American melodies. ii The Indian String Quartet was often featured on the Chautauqua Circuit, a traveling event to bring education and culture to the greater public. iii

Fred Cardin then formed his own group: the Indian Art and Musical Company, a group with ever-changing instrumentation but most often including violin, piano, cello, and voice. They would perform Pueblo Songs, modern harmonized songs, and songs with orchestra together with pieces by Rachmaninoff, MacDowell, and Brahms. In comparison to the Indian String Quartet, this group held greater emphasis on the Native American culture exhibited in their performances; the entire concert and all promotional materials featured the members in Native American dress. Fred Cardin was not only successful as a performer but also as a composer; his main goal was the preservation and appreciation of the spirit of Native American music. His works featured a heavy rhythmic presence with a floating melodic line and were often transcriptions of songs that had only existed in the memory of his people.

In 1926, Mr. Cardin entered the Curtis Institute of Music and studied with Reginald Morris. He excelled at Curtis, completing his composition studies in just one year. He then continued his education at Temple University and the University of Pennsylvania. Following his time in Philadelphia, he performed with the Kansas City Symphony and served as part of the University of Nebraska’s music faculty before joining a cultural movement called the Chautauqua Circuit, promoting Native American culture.

He was a prolific composer, releasing Cree War Dance with the Carl Fischer publishing company and his collaborations with Thurlow Lieurance (another Indianist composer and musicologist invested in researching and collecting Native American Music): Lament and Ghost Pipes (Indian Idyl) with the Theodore Presser Co. His composition Great Drum for chorus and dramatic reader was performed at the New York’s Town Hall in 1930 and was the only composition to be performed again the following year due to its popularity. iv

In his later years, Fred Cardin taught music at the Reading Senior High School in Reading, Pennsylvania. While there, he wrote a historical pageant, Thunderstorm, that was often performed at high school graduation ceremonies. He was heavily involved in music as the director of the Ring Gold Band (succeeding John Philip Sousa’s work with the ensemble) from 1936 to 1960, served as the music director of the Reading Civic Opera, and was a violinist of the Reading Symphony Orchestra up until his death on August 29, 1960.

 

Explore more Curtis history at the Curtis Institute of Music Open Archives and Recitals (CIMOAR) digital collections. Learn more about Curtis’s library and archives HERE.

View images of the quartet and promotional materials for the Indian Art and Musical Company HERE.

To locate Cardin’s score, Cree War Dance, on an Indian melody recorded by Thurlow Lieurance for violin and piano visit Curtis’s online catalog.

 

 

i Schlosberg, L. (April, 1950). “Heap Fine Musician: The Indian Boy Named for a Wildcat Became a Maestro in Reading, PA” Philadelphia Inquirer.

ii Americana: The Journal of American Popular Culture (1900-present). (2021). Retrieved 11 February 2021, from https://www.americanpopularculture.com/journal/articles/fall_2008/lush.htm

iii Lush, Paige Clark (Fall, 2008). “All the American Other: Native American Music and Musicians on the Circuit Chautauqua.” Americana: The Journal of American Popular Culture, 1900 to Present 7, no. 2

iv Troutman, J. W. (2013). Indian Blues: American Indians and the Politics of Music, 1879-1974. University of Oklahoma Press.

Photo Credits: 1.) Fred Cardin “Pejawah”. Courtesy of the Music Archives at the Curtis Institute of Music. MacDonald Studio/Curtis Institute of Music Archives. 2.) Portrait of Mr. Cardin from “The Indian String Quartet: and Mr. Richard H. Kennedy” The University of Iowa Libraries: Redpath Chautauqua Collection (MSC0150) 3.) Fred Cardin as he appears in “The Etude Historical Musical Portrait Series.” Page 460 July 1932 Courtesy of the Curtis Institute of Music. 4.) Cover image of a program for the Indian String Quartet in traditional clothing from “The Indian String Quartet: and Mr. Richard H. Kennedy” The University of Iowa Libraries: Redpath Chautauqua Collection (MSC0150). 5.) Mr. Cardin as a member of the Indian String Quartet. Image from “The Indian String Quartet: and Mr. Richard H. Kennedy” The University of Iowa Libraries: Redpath Chautauqua Collection (MSC0150).  6.) Fred Cardin teaching at the Reading High School, photo in the Philadelphia Inquirer April 30, 1950.

 

 

Celebrating Hispanic Heritage: Marta García Renart (Piano ’64)

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Born to a musical family in Mexico City in 1942, distinguished pianist, composer, teacher, and Curtis alumna Marta García Renart (’64) has carved out an illustrious career. As a child, she took piano lessons with Francisco Agea and Baltasar Samper, and studied music theory with Pedro Michaca, later becoming a student of the prominent French pianist Bernard Flavigny. One of 82 pianists auditioning for Curtis in 1959, she won a spot, becoming a pupil of Eleanor Sokoloff (Piano ’38) and Rudolf Serkin, also serving as the accompanist to cello faculty members Orlando Cole (’34) and Leonard Rose (’39).

From 1963 to 1967, she continued her studies at Mannes College of Music in New York, focusing on direction, musical analysis, and composition as a student of Carl Schachter, performing numerous recitals with her brother: cellist Luis García Renart, a pupil of Pablo Casals and Mstislav Rostropovich.

A faculty member at the El Nicromante Cultural Center in San Miguel de Allende from 1986 to the present, Ms. Renart has performed acclaimed concerts at Carnegie Hall, the Tingüindín Temple, Michoacán, and across the U.S., Cuba, El Salvador, and almost every state in Mexico. She is a member of the Sagittarius Trio and has participated in numerous festivals, such as the Cervantino International Festival and the “Manuel Enriquez” New Music Festival.

She served as the director of the Massa Coral of the Orfeò Català of Mexico City from 1969 to 1980. In 1973, she joined the Liga de Compositores de Música de Concierto de México (League of Composers of Concert Music of Mexico), and her work as a composer, which includes a catalog of song cycles, music for chamber groups, opera, piano, and the theater, earned her the “Composer with a Career” scholarship from Conaculta Querétaro in 1993.

From 1985 to 2005, she was the resident pianist at the San Miguel de Allende Chamber Music Festival, playing with the Fine Arts, Manhattan, Lark, Ying, and Cuarteto Latinoamericano quartets. Additionally, Ms. Renart was the resident pianist at the Instrumenta International Festival of Puebla in 2003 and 2004 and at the Aguascalientes Chamber Music Festival in 2005 and 2006. Among other recognitions, Marta García Renart obtained the “1999 Excellence” award with the radio program Sobre Música, Músicos… y Algo Más…, which she hosted live from the City of Querétaro from April 1998 to March of 2002.

Among her students are the composer Georgina Derbez, the pianist and composer Jorge Isaac González Prieto,​ the violinist and composer Juan Ramón Meza, and the composer and pianist Luis Obregón.

Explore more Curtis history at the Curtis Institute of Music Open Archives and Recitals (CIMOAR) digital collections. Learn more about Curtis’s library and archives HERE.

Photo Credits: 1. & 5.) Portrait of Ms. Renart courtesy of Expresionen Movimiento. 2.) Courtesy of es.wikipedia.org. 3.) Image of Marta García Renart courtesy of Luzam. 4.) Ana Gerhard and Ms. Renard courtesy of Jornada; photo by  José Antonio López. 6.) Image courtesy of Museo Escárcega.

Celebrating Hispanic Heritage: Jorge Bolet (Piano ’40)

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Born in Havana, Cuba, on November 15, 1914, prize-winning virtuoso pianist, conductor, teacher, and Curtis alumnus Jorge Bolet‘s (Piano ’40) rise to fame came unusually late in life—he did not achieve international renown until his ’60s. In 1927, at age 12, the young Bolet was sent to the United States to study with David Saperton, Leopold Godowsky, Moriz Rosenthal, and Josef Hofmann at Curtis. While at the school, he served as the assistant of pianist Rudolf Serkin and, after winning the Naumburg Award in 1937, presented his New York debut recital at the Town Hall. A year later, in 1938, he received the prestigious Josef Hofmann Award.

In 1942, Mr. Bolet joined the U.S. Army and was sent to Japan to serve. While there, he conducted the Japanese premiere of Gilbert and Sullivan’s operetta, The Mikado. After returning to the U.S., he began taking private lessons with Abram Chasins (Piano ’29), supporting Mr. Bolet in his somewhat frustrating endeavor to establish himself as a concert pianist of note. During the 1950s, he made his first recordings of recitals for the Boston and Remington labels, most notably the Piano Concerto No. 2 Op. 16 of Sergei Prokofiev with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra and the Four Scherzi of Frederic Chopin. In 1960, he played the piano soundtrack for the 1950 biopic of Franz Liszt, Song Without End, starring Dirk Bogarde and Genevieve Page.

Regarding his private life, Mr. Bolet and his partner Houston Larimore “Tex” Compton met in the early 1940s after Tex financially invested in Jorge’s performance career, forming the Arcoiris Corp. Mr. Compton even traveled with his partner as his road manager and secretary and by 1951, the couple were both residing at 71 Washington Square in New York City. In 1980, after nearly forty years together, Tex died in Santa Clara, southeast of San Francisco.

A 1983 interview of pianist Jorge Bolet by Robin Ray.

In a musical climate that derided anti-Romantics for decades, Mr. Bolet was largely ignored until the 1970s, when a wave of neo-Romanticism shifted the tides in his favor, leading to widespread acclaim and up to 150 concert appearances a year. Beginning in 1978 at age 64, he was contracted by Decca/London Records to record a series of albums featuring the work of Franz Liszt, Frédéric Chopin, Johannes Brahms, Robert Schumann, and Sergei Rachmaninoff, the French music of César Franck and Claude Debussy, and various encore pieces. According to a memorial article in the New York Times, he “was one of the few pianists to record the Godowsky arrangements of the Chopin Etudes; these Godowsky transcriptions may be the most difficult pieces ever written for solo piano.” In 1984, Mr. Bolet gave a series of masterclasses entitled Bolet Meets Rachmaninoff, broadcast through the A&E Network, accompanied by a complete performance of the composer’s Piano Concerto No. 3.

Bolet Meets Rachmaninoff: Jorge Bolet masterclass excerpt from the A&E Network.

Prior to and during his international performance career, Mr. Bolet served as professor of piano music at Indiana University from 1968 to 1977. He became head of the piano department at Curtis in 1977, succeeding Mr. Serkin, until 1986. Upon his appointment, he said, ”I have received knowledge and experience from the great masters, and it is now my responsibility to pass it on to the next generation.”

Mr. Bolet passed away on October 16, 1990, at age 75, in Mountain View, California.

Explore more Curtis history at the Curtis Institute of Music Open Archives and Recitals (CIMOAR) digital collections. Learn more about Curtis’s library and archives HERE.

Photo Credits: 1.) Banner image courtesy of Bach-Cantatas.com. 2. Image courtesy of the Curtis Institute of Music Library and Archives. 3.) Jorge Bolet promo image at Texas Christian University’s Ed Landreth Auditorium; Fort Worth Star-Telegram, morning edition, November 3, 1950. 4, 5.) Courtesy of the official Eugene Isotmin website.

Celebrating Hispanic Heritage: Angélica Morales von Sauer (Piano ’28)

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Acclaimed concert pianist, educator, and Curtis alumna Angélica Euterpe Morales von Sauer (Piano ’28) was born in Gurabo, Puerto Rico, on January 22, 1911, to a Puerto Rican father, violinist Angel Celestino Morales Marcano, and Mexican mother, pianist María Dolores Martinez Velazquez. When Angélica was an eight-month-old infant, the family traveled to Cuba, where Angel was to give a concert tour; however, he tragically died in the city of Cienfuegos, leaving his pregnant wife with her baby and unborn daughter, Estela. During this time, they lived in both Aguascalientes and Mexico City, and María taught private lessons and played the piano at cinemas for silent films. By age six, the young Angélica showed great promise as a pianist and studied the instrument with her mother and Mexican aristocrat, Miguel Cortazar.

On January 26, 1921, she gave her first recital at the Escuela Nacional Preparatoria to rave reviews, and plans were set in motion for her to study abroad. Throughout the summer of that year, Mrs. Morales and her daughters traveled to various cities across Mexico where Angélica performed concerts to garner acclaim beyond the country’s capital city. In 1922, sixty-six students were granted pensions by the Universidad Nacional to study in Europe. Mrs. Morales, Estela, and Angélica briefly moved to Paris before being advised by a Mexican student she met to find a piano teacher in Berlin instead. Here, she auditioned for Italian composer, pianist, conductor, and teacher Ferruccio Busoni, who was not taking additional students and suggested she apply to the Hochschule für Musik and study with his protege Egon Petri.

After four years of studying with Petri, Angélica made her debut with the Berlin Philharmonic at age 13 and met German composer and pianist Emil von Sauer, a student of Franz Liszt, whom she began briefly studying with. In 1925, she moved back to Paris to further her musical studies. In the middle of 1926, she spent four months in Mexico, where she took lessons with Josef Hoffmann, who, in 1924, had been appointed the first head of the piano department at Curtis by Mary Louise Curtis Bok. Angélica joined his studio here in Philadelphia and graduated in 1928. Shortly after that, she began working with Russian pianist Josef Lhévinne in New York, and in 1929, she made her professional debut at Carnegie Hall and gave recitals throughout the U.S., Europe, and Mexico.

Josef Hofmann’s studio at the Curtis Institute of Music. Angélica Morales von Sauer can be seen on the bottom row, second from the right. Photo courtesy of the Curtis Library and Archives; Kubrey-Rembrandt Studios, Inc.

In 1930, she went to the Austrian spa town of Bad Gastein in Salzburg to study with Emil von Sauer again. There, she performed with the Dresden Philharmonic, Vienna Symphony Orchestra, Budapest Philharmonic, Lamoureaux Orchestra of Paris, the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, the Southern Philharmonic, and many others. By 1939, they were married until he passed away in 1942 at age 79. During their short union, Mrs. von Sauer had two sons with her husband—Julio and Franz. Following his death, she succeeded to her late husband’s chair at the Vienna Academy of Music before returning to Mexico in 1946 to teach at the Conservatorio Nacional de Música, drawing widespread acclaim for her annual three-week-long masterclasses throughout the country to support the next generation of talented young Mexican pianists.

In the mid-fifties, she was invited to join the faculty of the University of Kansas, where she taught until she retired in 1973, and at age 62, moved to Oklahoma and recorded the complete Well-Tempered Clavier, BWV 846-893 (Johann Sebastian Bach). She continued to actively serve as a piano competition judge in the United States, Europe, and Mexico, and a concert hall in Mexico City was named in her honor.

Mrs. von Sauer passed away on April 16, 1996, at age 85, in Stillwater, Oklahoma.

Explore more Curtis history at the Curtis Institute of Music Open Archives and Recitals (CIMOAR) digital collections. Learn more about Curtis’s library and archives HERE.

Biographical information of Mrs. von Sauer’s life provided in part by María Eugenia Tapia’s doctoral dissertation, Angélica Morales von Sauer: An Account of Her Performing and Teaching Career; The University of Texas at Austin, ProQuest Dissertations Publishing, May 1995.

Photo Credits: 1.) Angélica Morales von Sauer, La Crónica de Hoy. 2.) Courtesy of Reforma.com. 3.) The book cover of Angélica Morales: Historia de una pianista mexicana by María Teresa Castrillon, published by the National Council for Culture and Arts (Conaculta), 2007. 4.) Courtesy of the Curtis Archives and Special Collections. 5.) Todd Mueller Autographs. 6.) Photo of Mrs. von Sauer and the Jury of the 1983 Queen Elisabeth Competition in Brussels; courtesy of the competition’s website. 

Celebrating Women’s History: Ruby Philogene (Opera ’93)

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“…the glorious sound of mezzo soprano Ruby Philogene”
—The Irish Times

Internationally acclaimed mezzo-soprano Ruby Philogene MBE (Opera ’93), first prize winner of England’s prestigious Kathleen Ferrier Competition and revered voice teacher, has received numerous accolades over the past two decades in the world of international opera and song. In 2003, Ms. Philogene was made a Member of the British Empire (MBE) on the Queen’s Birthday Honors list for her services to music.

The London-born artist studied at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama and was presented with the Sir Keith Showering Memorial Award by the Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures, and Commerce (RSA) in 1990 to undertake advanced studies overseas. While in Philadelphia, she received her master of music degree in opera performance at Curtis and graduated in the spring of 1993.

While at the Curtis Institute of Music, she performed in Curtis Opera Theatre’s productions of Aaron Copland’s The Tender Land, George Frideric Handel’s Alcina and Xerses, W.A. Mozart’s Don Giovanni, and scenes from Peter Ilich Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin. Mr. Philogene also performed in La tragédie de Carmen—Maurius Constant’s adaptation of Georges Bizet’s Carmen—Dominick Argento’s Postcard from Morocco, and Franz Joseph Haydn’s Arianna a Naxos—a cantata for mezzo-soprano—with the Curtis Symphony Orchestra.

Throughout her illustrious performance career, Ms. Philogene has sung in opera, oratorio, and recitals throughout Europe and the United States, including the Royal Opera House, Deutsche Oper Berlin, La Monnaie Royal Opera Brussels, English National Opera, and the San Francisco Symphony. Over the past two decades, she has also worked with many of the world’s leading conductors, including Antonio Pappano, Riccardo Muti, Michael Tilson Thomas, Franz Welser-Most, Kent Nagano, Christoph Von Dohnanyi, and the late Sir Colin Davies. She has also sung alongside Bryn Terfel, Ian Bostridge, and José Van Dam.

Beloved for her exquisitely rendered portrayals of some of opera’s greatest mezzo heroines, Ms. Philogene has carved out an equally formidable reputation off the stage as a transformational voice teacher for all ages and learning levels. She is currently a professor of voice at her alma mater, the Guildhall School of Music & Drama.

Some of her best-known operatic roles are La Duchessa in Giuseppe Verdi’s Louisa Miller and the Page in Strauss’s Salome, both at the Royal Opera House in London, Maddalena in Verdi’s Rigoletto at Opera Philadelphia, Rosina in Gioachino Rossini’s The Barber of Seville at Garsington Opera in the UK. She’s also performed as Eurydice in Monteverdi’s Orfeo with English National Opera, Smeraldina in Sergei Prokofiev’s The Love Of Three Oranges with both San Francisco Opera and the Opera de Lyon, and Hippolyta in Benjamin Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream directed by David McVicar at La Monnaie Brussels (also as Hermia in a recording with Sir Colin Davis for Philips).

Ms. Philogene’s contemporary opera repertoire includes the role of Omar in John Adam’s The Death of Klinghoffer in Rotterdam, The Spanish Lady in Leonard Bernstein’s (Conducting ’41) Candide with the Rotterdam Philharmonic, Calliope in Pierre Bartholomé’s Oedipe Sur La Route with José van Dam (Theatre de la Monnaie), and Deborah Warner’s production of Leoš Janáček’s The Diary of One Who Disappeared with Ian Bostridge and Julius Drake in a translation commissioned from Nobel Prize-winning Irish poet, Seamus Heaney.

Recent work by Ms. Philogene has included Benjamin Britten’s one-woman cantata Phaedra in a site-specific, immersive production directed by Sophie Hunter for the 4th Happy Days Enniskillen International Beckett Festival in Ireland, and Gustav Mahler’s Kindertotenlieder, staged by director Netia Jones.

Ms. Philogene’s recordings include her solo disc Steal Away (EMI), Paulus by Felix Mendelsohn with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, the title role of Arianna by Alexander Goehr, and the complete folk songs of Beethoven (EMI) singing alongside Dame Felicity Lott and Sir Thomas Allen, with accompaniment by revered Scottish pianist, Malcolm Martineau, OBE.

Photo Credits: 1.) Ruby Philogene; courtesy of Scottish Ensemble. 2.) Courtesy of the Curtis Institute of Music Library and Archives. 3.) Sir Richard Attenborough with Ruby Philogene after she received the Anna Instone Memorial Award outside the Duke of York’s Theatre in London; The Daily Telegraph, 5.28.91, Stephen Lock. 4.) Ruby Philogene, Colleen Gaetano, and Michael Dean in The Tender Land, 1991; courtesy of the Curtis Institute of Music Library and Archives. 5.) Ruby Philogene; Achim Liebold for West Cork Chamber Music Festival. 6.)Ruby Philogene as Eurydice in ENO’s 2006 production of Monterverdi’s Orfeo. Photograph: Tristram Kenton/The Guardian. 7.) Courtesy of Ruby’s Find Your Voice Song School. 8.) Mezzo-soprano Ruby Philogene in Phaedra; John McVitty