Frances Copthorne's Music
and the 2007 Women in Music Festival
at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, NY 

 

From the Festival's Program:

A Composer's Life Rediscovered:
Frances Copthorne and her Music

Read about the newly acquired Copthorne Collection and visit its special exhibit at the Sibley Music Library.

The exhibit concentrates on Ms. Copthorne's numerous achievements: a published composer and seasoned performer who had studied under both Galli-Curci and Nadia Boulanger, and whose numerous public performance credits included a White House performance. The exhibit is made possible by the recent donation of the "Frances Copthorne Collection" to the Library. Please read the amazing story behind this donation on page 17 of this booklet.

From Page 17:

This past July, I was returning from a visit with my boyfriend. My flight from Chicago to Philadelphia had been overbooked, so I volunteered to fly from Chicago, to Washington D.C., to Philadelphia – all for a complementary voucher ticket. On my leg from D.C. to Philadelphia, I was placed in the aisle seat of group of three. The gentleman sitting next to the window began sharing his political views, a sure-fire way to assuage closely confined strangers on an unfamiliar flight! We all shared opinions and spoke openly. I informed them as to where I was flying, and I explained that I study at Eastman. Cop, the man seated to my right, knew well about Eastman, and shared that his grandmother was Frances Copthorne, an American composer. As it turned out, he was en route to Florida, where his great aunt held in her possession the scores and musical contributions of Ms. Copthorne. Excited beyond belief, I told him about my involvement with the Women in Music Festival, we exchanged contact information, and the rest is history. Within the next few months, with the tremendous support of David Peter Coppen and Sylvie Beaudette, Ms. Copthorne’s works and memorabilia were archived in the Special Collections portion of the Sibley Music Library.

I had the distinct privilege of looking through her works and with my vocalist, selecting some of her music to perform on the festival’s program. Ms. Copthorne was a lovely woman with a contagiously optimistic musical sound. Her songs are remarkably charming, bring a smile to the face, and contain unique pianistic motives that are recognizable upon initial hearing. It is indeed a great honor to share her works and pay tribute to her legacy. We are thrilled that Cop is here at the Women in Music Festival to celebrate his grandmother's musical accomplishments.

Sophia Ahmad, Women in Music Festival Assistant Director

As Sophia mentioned, Ms. Copthorne’s artistic legacy is documented in the collection now available at the Sibley Music Library. A native Chicagoan, Ms. Copthorne (1894-1945) acquired a reputation in her native city as both performer and composer as she became prominent in the city’s musical and social life. Among her performance credits was a 1934 performance at the White House before an audience that included First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt. In 1937 Ms. Copthorne sailed to France and there studied composition and counterpoint with Nadia Boulanger, thus becoming one of those many musicians who had sought the tutelage of the esteemed Mlle. Boulanger. The Frances Copthorne Collection at the Sibley Music Library gathers together music manuscripts and documents reflecting Ms. Copthorne’s career, a career that was tragically cut short by the onset of cancer. Represented in the collection are photographs, letters, recital programs, pages extracted from scrapbooks, and music manuscripts, in particular fragments of the manuscripts of the works for children for which Ms. Copthorne acquired a reputation. The community is cordially invited to peruse these documents.

David Peter Coppen, Sibley Music Library, Special Collection


So Who is Who?

 

Sophia Ahmad, the Festival's Assistant Director and the woman Cop Macdonald sat next to on the plane

Dr. Sylvie Beaudette, the Festival's Artistic Director

Left to Right, Copthorne (Cop) Macdonald, David Peter Coppen, and Samantha Copthorne
in the Sibley Music Library's Special Collections vault which David Peter Coppen
oversees, and which is the permanent home of the Frances Copthorne Collection

 

The Performance

On Monday, March 26, 2007, the first day of the Festival, three songs composed by Frances Copthorne were performed in the Eastman Music School's Main Hall, shown at the right during the performance of a piano quartet.

Thanks to Samantha, we now have MP3 audio of the performance of Frances's songs! By clicking the links below you can listen to Sophia Ahmad (piano) and Tom Vendafreddo (tenor) as they performed each song. As an added touch, when played on a Windows Media Player, the words of the song appear on the screen. Left-click to listen to streaming audio on whatever your default MP3 player happens to be. Right-click and Save Target As to download the file.

Mischief Moon (lyric by Caroline Thomas) 1:02

Lady Night (lyric by Francesca Falk Miller) 1:59

When Night Comes On (lyric by Elsie Fowler) 1:51

(Words don't appear on screen? Click here.)

In addition, the scores of the 3 songs are available as .gif files:
Mischief Moon — page1,   page2
Lady Night — page1,   page2,   page3
When Night Comes On — page1,   page2,   page3


The Frances Copthorne Collection Exhibit

       

   

In the Special Collections Vault

Cop on a stool photographing the Collection label

Click for an overview of the materials in the collection at the time of this event. For a list of the additional materials submitted in December 2007, click here.


The First Meeting of Two Copthornes

Three years ago I (Cop) received an email from Samantha Copthorne who had run across my web site while doing a genealogical search. We started an email correspondence, and when Samantha heard about the Festival of Women in Music and the fact that I was planning to go, she decided to come too. On March 25 she drove up from her home in Cleveland Heights with a long time friend, Jodi Harmon. Here we are in Java's coffeehouse the next morning:

Jodi Harmon

Cop Macdonald and Sam Copthorne

As the photo at the right indicates, we newfound "cousins" got along fine.
Many laughs later, the three of us started attending events: A lecture to a class of composition students by composer Tanya Leon, the concert where Frances Copthorne's music was performed, a visit to the Copthorne Collection exhibit, and a wonderful tour of the archival vault by David Peter Coppen.

For any who are interested, click to see the Copthorne family tree as it existed in the early 1960s, with the players in the March 26 Eastman drama highlighted. (To enlarge the image on a PC, press F11.)

Many thanks, Sam and Jodi, for taking many of these Web page photos.

Don't go away; there is more! Samantha's amazing digital camera also records video, and here are two short post-concert clips to share with you:

Samantha setting the lunchtime scene       (AVI format, 32 seconds)

Cop reminiscing about Frances       (AVI format, 2 minutes 46 seconds)

(To view these clips requires a hi-speed Internet connection. If left-clicking the link doesn't produce satisfactory results, try saving the file by right-clicking the link and then left-clicking Save Target As. Then, when the file has been saved, activate Windows Media Player (or other player), Open the saved file, and Play it.)