1922 - Sarah Frances Espy of Headland, AL graduated from Judson College, where she studied piano for three years. Sarah Frances then began her studies at the New York School of Music and Arts, participating in a piano concert on October 22, 1922.
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a letter J.J. Espy, Sr. wrote to his daughter Sarah Frances regarding her Judson graduation and a scholarship she had just received
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1923 - In May, Sarah Frances participated in another piano concert at the New York School of Music and Arts. Items from that night are posted below. See if you can spot her in the big group photo before doing it the easy way.
Family records indicate that Aunt Frances, upon completing her musical studies in New York, returned to Alabama where she taught high school at Dale County (Ozark). It was during this stint back in the south when she met her future husband, Charles Watson Sidney, incidentally, a native New Yorker. They eventually moved back north to New Jersey, where Uncle Sid had a very distinguished career.
Stefania Van Ness is a musical girl and sings with excellent expression, while Sarah Espy showed singing tone and vigor in piano pieces by Lasson and Bach. - from the October 26, 1922 edition of Musical Courier (below ). If you have trouble reading it in that format, click
here for the exact web page.
Aunt Frances would be very proud to know that her great-niece and great-great-niece are a couple of a family members who are making music a big part of their lives. To see them perform, click
here and scroll. After that, c
lick here to see a video of Aunt Marilyn playing a piano that once belonged to Aunt Frances.
2 comments:
After you mentioned you had looked up the school on the Internet, I did too. I could find nothing about it. At the time the booklet was written, it described the school as a music school and a boarding school. They taught piano, voice, and violin. I would imagine that the picture included the directors, staff, and pupils. It sounded like a cultural experience - that the students probably went to cultural events while attending the school. It did not look like the school offered any degrees but did prepare the students for teaching. She had a scrapbook where the programs and booklet of the school were, as well as many many cut-outs of names of plays and music performances she attended probably while there.
I think I remember Aunt Frances having a piano that was a concert grand - a piano that was in the same location as the one Marilyn now has but was so long that it extended way on into the living room area towards the front of the house. I think I remember she gave that piano to the Headland First Baptist Church and bought the Steinway grand that Marilyn has after she had returned with Uncle Sid to Headland to live.
About pianos - I remember a very large old "square" or oddly shaped piano that remained in Granny Espy's sitting room for many years. It was on an inside wall and full of books, papers, etc. I like remembering the stuff on the piano since it reminds me where I got my downfall of stacking collections of stuff.
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