Lawrence, Vera Brodsky
Lawrence, Vera Brodsky
Lawrence, Vera Brodsky, American pianist and music editor; b. Norfolk, Va., July 1, 1909. She studied piano with Josef and Rosina Lhévinne and theory with Goldmark and Wagenaar at the Juilliard School of Music in N.Y. (1929–32). She gave duo-piano concerts with Harold Triggs, and appeared as a soloist with American orchs. In a radical change of direction, she abandoned her concert career in 1965 to become a historian of American music. In 1967 she was appointed administrator of publications for the Contemporary Music Project, and supervised the publication of numerous works by American composers. She publ. the collected piano works of Gottschalk (5 vols., 1969); the complete works of Joplin (2 vols., 1970); Music for Patriots, Politicians, and Presidents, tracing American history as reflected in popular music, profusely illustrated with title pages and musical excerpts from publ. songs and dances celebrating historical events, and campaign ballads written during presidential elections (1975), which received the ASCAP-Deems Taylor Award (1976); Strong on Music: The New York Music Scene in the Days of George Templeton Strong, 1836-1875: Vol. I: Resonances, 1836-1850 (1988) and Vol. II: Reverbersations, 1850-1856 (1995).
—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire