On August 15, Sante Fe harpsichordist Virginia Mackie joins the very exclusive club of centenarian harpsichordists; indeed, the only other one known to me is retired Paris Conservatoire Professor Marcelle de Lacour, who turned one hundred on November 6, 1996, celebrating the event by playing a recital for the residents of her retirement home!
After earning her BA at Wellesley College (Phi Beta Kappa), Mrs. Mackie did her Master's work at Columbia University, and spent several summers in France studying with Nadia Boulanger. Her teaching career in music theory and performance took her to Kansas City Junior College (as head of the music department), Yale University, and to the University of Missouri at Kansas City (where she served as Haag Distinguished Professor of Music). When UMKC later conferred on her its first honorary doctorate given to a woman, in lieu of an acceptance speech Mrs. Mackie gave an acceptance harpsichord recital, as well as a series of master classes.
Following a stint at the University of Arizona, Mrs. Mackie moved to Sante Fe, where she has been designated a "Santa Fe Living Treasure." Here she continues to share her keen analytical skills and love of music with a small number of students. She is especially devoted to the music of Haydn, and, of course, to the masterworks of J.S. Bach, who, I am certain, is happy to share the kudos of his own high-profile year with such a distinguished colleague.
Thanks to Dr. Charles Mize for providing information used in this report.
Women, Men, and Harpsichords in Colorado
More than fifty registrants assembled in Boulder, Colorado, for the Midwestern Historical Keyboard Society's 16th annual meeting, May 18-20. Subtitled "A Conference in Early Music," program chair Theresa Bogard's agenda was much more than that, for it included Elaine Funaro's fascinating program of 20th-century harpsichord music by women (ranging from Wanda Landowska, 1951, through Sondra Clark, 1999), Susanne Skyrm's premiere of composer Sarah Dawson's new work for fortepiano, Dumuzi's Dream, and my own illustrated talk on Swiss patroness Antoinette Vischer's many avant garde harpsichord commissions. Denver resident Hal Haney, venerable editor of The Harpsichord, spoke about some of his experiences while interviewing major and minor figures of the harpsichord revival during the journal's years of publication, 1968-1976.
The conference theme was well served by two evening recitals: supremely communicative soprano Julianne Baird presented a concert of music from author Jane Austen's music collection, elegantly partnered by fortepianist Theresa Bogard, the program heightened by readings from Austen's novels presented by Baird's husband and the highly expressive Marion Paton. The closing concert, presented by Cecilia's Circle (Janet Youngdahl, soprano; Julie Andrijeski, baroque violin; Vivian Montgomery, harpsichord; and Julie Elhard, viola da gamba), consisted of a series of lovely excerpts from the music of Barbara Strozzi and Elizabeth Jacquet de la Guerre.
The conference opened with Elizabeth Farr playing all six of J.S. Bach's Trio Sonatas on her Keith Hill pedal harpsichord. Fleet fingered and footed, she dealt ably with a sticking pedal note, but as a program, this seemed to me rather like reading an encyclopedia; I lasted only through volumes A-L, the first three.
Novel scholarly presentations were given by Arthur Haas (suggesting that François Couperin's second Ordre for harpsichord might be a tribute to Elizabeth Jacquet de la Guerre); Catherine Gordon-Seifert (similarities between some melodic models in Louis Couperin's allemandes and those in the mid-17th-century French serious air); and Martha Novak Clinkscale (Women's Role in the Piano Business of the late 18th and early 19th centuries). Edward Kottick paid a sly tribute to John Barnes' tongue-in-cheek take on Italian harpsichords, in his paper "The ‘Specious Uniformity' of 18th-Century German Harpsichords."
Instruments by Thomas Bailey, Dana Ciul, Thomas Ciul, Douglas Maple, Peter O'Donnell, and Ted Robertson were demonstrated by Nanette Lunde and Max Yount, former presidents of MHKS. At the group's annual business meeting, Lilian Pruett, retiring editor of The Early Keyboard Journal (jointly published by SEHKS and MHKS) was honored for her twenty years of service; Carol Henry Bates was welcomed as the new editor.
Cool, sunny, and springlike, Boulder's weather was ideal, allowing inspiring views of snow-capped mountains. Social events, especially the evening receptions, provided good food and the all-important times to share talk with friends and colleagues.
