New England Conservatory of Music - Neume Yearbook (Boston, MA)

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Lorna Cooke de Varon Lorna Cooke deVaron was born in Weston Springs, Illinois. Her parents came from the far West, and her great grandparents crossed the prairie to Oregon in covered wagons. She attended schools in Illinois and started piano lessons at the age of four. At the age of six she sang solos in church pageants and school operettas, When she was fifteen years old, she moved to Rhode Island with her family, and there took voice and piano lessons and accomp- anied dance groups. She was President of her high school Glee Club, and at the age of sixteen won the highest honors for Rhode Island in a piano contest conducted by the National Music Teachers Association. In Wellesley College, where she received her A.B. in 1942, she majored in music, studied theory and harmony with Nadia Boulanger, was the college song leader, and was active in the choir during her four years. She wrote and directed the music for the college musical show, studied piano with David Barnett, voice with Olga Averino, and organ with Carl Weinrick. She received her Master of Arts in Music at Radcliffe College where she was Assistant Conductor of the Radcliffe Choral Society and the Radcliffe Choir. At Radcliffe she studied choral com- position with Archibald Davison, composition with Walter Piston, and choral conducting with G. Wallace Woodworth. At the age of twenty-three she was appointed to the music faculty at Bryn Mawr College, where she conducted the choir and became Assistant Professor of Music at the age of twenty-five. She studied at Tanglewood in 1946 and 1948 with Robert Shaw, and joined the Tanglewood faculty as assistant to Hugh Ross in the Choral Department in the summer of 1953. In addition to teaching choral conducting, Mrs. deVaron has also taught theory, choral and vocal repertoire, harmony, counterpoint, composition, music history, and voice. In 1947 she came to conduct the chorus and teach choral conducting at the New England Conservatory of Music. When asked why she chose music as a career she replied: I went into music because it was the most natural thing to do— from earliest childhood. Music is less bound by dimensions than any other art form. It may be enjoyed by a greater number of people at the same time. There is no language barrier, and there are no space barriers, and more people can work together to re- create music than is possible in any other art form. I believe choral singing has more of this great advantage than any other form of music, for a group of people singing together can create more intense beauty in a united effort than any one person in the group can do alone. In answer to the question, how would you describe the mission of the New England Conserva- tory Chorus, she replied: To promote the movement of ensemble singing from the New England Conservatory out into as many schools and communities as possible. What a chance this is for you to help foster the positive, the creative, and the progress toward beauty in a world torn by friction and destruction. Chorus gives us a chance to get to know and to make great music to- gether. Your concerts at Jordan Hall, at Boston pops, at the museums, and at the Boston Arts Festival all round out your musical year with a wide variety of music which you get to know from the point of view of the executant and the performer, not just as a listener. In addition to re- pertory, you also learn the strict demand and the striving for perfection with which all artists must be involved in the making of great art. The magic of your Boston Symphony concerts, con- certs in which the most is demanded of you; your close association with a great orchestral con- ductor; your participation in what will be your closest brush with musical perfection; the fine polish of the detail, the deep tone and feeling and spirit of the whole; these high artistic mom- ents will stay with you and will inspire you as you go forward in music. Watching a freshman, green to Chorus and sometimes insensitive to choral singing, develop by senior year into a mature, loyal leader of chorus, a fine and enthusiastic musician ready to go out and spread ' the word . This is the most rewarding experience of all. Mrs. deVaron, the senior class proudly dedicates the 1956 Neume to you. We feel sure that you will continue your excellent work in guiding future music students as capably as you have guided us. Page nine