EDNA WHITE

(October 23, 1892 - June 25, 1992)

Right: publicity photo for her first cornet solo, 1902

Far right: Publicity photo for her trumpet recital in Carnegie Hall, 1949

Hear Edna play The Carnival of Venice!

                           1892 -- 1914: A Child Prodigy                         1892  Prices & Events

    A child prodigy on cornet, Edna White was born in 1892 in Stamford, CT. Her father, Herbert J. White, was an amateur cornetist. On her seventh birthday, he gave her a cornet and taught her the C scale. She quickly learned to play every song she knew.

    Recognizing her extraordinary talent, her father moved the White family to Brooklyn, NY. Herbert joined an amateur band, and Edna was the featured soloist for their concert in Carnegie Hall on May 3, 1902,

(see photo above) for which she received $25. She was nine years old. Later that year she was hired as soloist for a popular summer resort in Ocean Grove, NJ, and quickly gained fame as a child prodigy.  [1, 2]

   Bread  .03/loaf   Milk  .18/gal

   Average income: $635/year

Bicycles were the most popular form of transportation. All entertainment was live, in theaters, traveling circuses, minstrel and wild west shows, including Buffalo Bill's.

President William McKinley was assassinated in 1901. VP Theodore Roosevelt became president.

   In 1904, Dr. Frank Damrosch recruited her to study at his newly founded Institute of Musical Art (now known as Julliard). There, a month before her 12th birthday, her professional training began in earnest. Her teacher, Adolphe Dubois, principal trumpet with the NY Philharmonic, switched her from cornet to trumpet and predicted a brilliant artistic career for her. (read his entire written endorsement below in "Mentors") [1]

   At the 1907 commencement, Edna was the only graduate to play a solo, but she received no degree because she was too young, an oversite rectified in 1984 when a Julliard representative awarded her an Artist's Diploma. [4]

   Edna formed an all-woman trumpet quartet, and the Redpath Chautauqua Company hired them to tour the country (1910-1912). But after disagreements with the other women, Edna returned to her family in Indianapolis. There, at her mother's urging, she married a man almost twenty years her senior in 1913.

       (photo at right: Myron Chandler and Edna White) 

    A foreign service officer, Myron disapproved of her trumpet playing and urged her to study voice. Edna refused and insisted they return to New York so that she could resume her career.  [1]

1914 -- 1918: A World War 

  But by then WW I was raging in Europe. In 1917 the United States declared war against Germany, and nearly 10 million men registered for the draft. Millions of women filled the jobs they left behind, working as auto mechanics, streetcar conductors, and on factory assembly lines.

   For the first time, women joined the U.S. military. More than 11,000 women enlisted in the Navy, working as stenographers and clerks. [3]

  One was Catherine Woodward, pictured in uniform far right with two of her yeoman-F mates in 1918 at the Naval base in New London, CT.

At Right:

A WWI submarine moored at the New London Naval base, where Catherine was stationed in 1918. 

   After Myron's foreign bank accounts were frozen, he did not object  when Edna formed an all-woman trumpet quartet and became the family breadwinner.

   The Edna White Trumpeters played at the 1915 Panama Pacific Exposition in San Francisco, (photo at right), prior to a speech by famed evangelist preacher Billy Sunday. Edna also played a trumpet solo with the Mexican National Band. [1]

   But in 1916, pregnancy interrupted Edna's career; her son, Douglas Chandler, was born in 1917. Edna doted on him, but the marriage, doomed from the start, crumbled, and Edna left Myron in 1918. [1]

The 1920s: Happiness and Success 

   To support herself and her son, Edna formed a brass quartet. Edna and Julie Golden played trumpet; Velma Howell and New England Conservatory graduate Ida Bisbee played trombone. In the photo at right: Edna stands at the rear; Ida Bisbee is seated on the right.

   The highly successful Edna White Brass Quartet toured vacation resorts and the Keith vaudeville circuit throughout the 1920s, and Ida Bisbee later married Edna's only brother.

   The 1920s decade was a happy and successful time for Edna. In 1920 she made her first recording for Thomas Edison, playing Herbert L. Clarke's The Debutant. [1, 2]

Hear Edna play The Debutante!

  From 1920 to 1926, Edna recorded for Edison and Columbia records, first as a trumpet soloist and later as a duo with operatic baritone Torcum Bezazian, the new man in her life. 

          At right: Edna and Torcum in Edison's NYC studio.

   She and Torcum formed a vaudeville act, Bezazian and White, and toured the Keith-Albee circuit as headliners for much of the decade. Torcum became a de-facto father to her son Douglas. After her divorce from Myron was finalized in 1923, Edna married Torcum.

   In her book, The Night the Camel Sang, Edna marks this as the happiest period of her life. In 1927, they took Douglas to France to visit Torcum's mother. It was a fateful visit.

  Torcum decided to stay in France to further his operatic career. But Edna's only career opportunities lay in the U.S. She made a wrenching emotional decision. She and Douglas sailed back to New York without Torcum.

         Torcum at right; Edna and Douglas, far right

   With a heavy heart, Edna resumed her career as soloist and leader of her brass quartet. Then, another disaster. In 1929 the stock market crashed. When people rushed to banks to withdraw their money, many of the banks closed, and millions of people, including Edna, lost their life's savings. [5]

The 1930s: A Worldwide Depression

   The 1930s were difficult for Edna. The Depression all but killed vaudeville, her main source of work, and a bout with scarlet fever led to heart problems. In her memoirs she recalled that she and her son "subsisted for days on hard-boiled eggs." [1] She played a few concerts with all-women orchestras led by Antonia Brico (NY) and Ethel Leginska (Boston).

   John Phillip Sousa heard her play the Guy-Ropartz Andante and Allegro with Henry Hadley's Manhattan Symphony, deemed her "a most gifted soloist," and asked her to solo with his band, but he died before she could do so. In 1938, she played Rimsky Korsakov's Flight of the Bumblebee on the WOR-NY radio program "Famous Firsts." [1]

The 1940s and 50s: A spectacular success and a farewell recital

   During the 1940s, Edna performed infrequently: a tour with the American Women's Symphoniette in 1941, a solo appearance with Ethel Stark's Montreal Women's Symphony in 1944. After graduating from college, her son, Douglas Chandler, suggested she spark her career with a solo recital. She agreed and at the age of 57, she prepared a challenging program.

   Her Carnegie Hall solo recital on February 19, 1949 included works by J.S. Bach, Georges Enesco, Canadian composer Gena Branscombe, and the premier of At the Beach, a concert waltz composed for her by Virgil Thomson. Conrad V. Bos accompanied her on piano. [1]

   The New York Times praised her "musicianship, good sense of pitch and powerful, brilliant tone." [6] The Herald Tribune review noted: "Miss White is a real virtuoso and the very first to give a trumpet recital in Carneigie Hall. There seems nothing she cannot attain with her instrument." [7] Bandmaster Edwin Franko Goldman deemed the recital a "triumphant success" and her playing "very fine indeed," praising her lovely tone, precise intonation and phrasing. [1]

   The reviews brought a flurry of work: a performance on the CBS television show We the People, a 37-week tour of military hospitals, two solo appearances with the Goldman Band in NYC, but, other than her premier of George Antheil's Trumpet Sonata at Columbia University in 1954, Edna rarely performed in the 1950s. In 1957, at the age of 65, she returned to Carnegie Hall to play her "farewell recital," which included the Carnival of Venice. [1]

Hear Edna play the Carnival of Venice!

1960s, 70s and 80s: Retirement? Not really!

   The word "retirement" was not in Edna's vocabulary. For a time she did public relations for Rinn Records. In 1963 (at age 71!) she was associate editor of Boxing World, writing feature articles and a weekly column. In 1968 she moved to Greenfield, MA, to be near her son Douglas, but he died in 1970, leaving her grief stricken. [1]

    I met Edna in 1992 at a nursing home in Greenfield, MA. Then 99 and in failing health, she remained clear headed and ambitious, enthusiastically discussing her plans to write another book. Sadly, she died on June 25, 1992, before completing it.

   At her memorial service, I met many of her relatives. My deepest gratitude goes to Edna's niece, Cynthia (White) Dixon, her husband Tom Dixon, and Edna's nephew Edward White, for entrusting me with Edna's personal and professional papers, which I have placed at the Sibley Music Library at the Eastman School of Music, University of Rochester (NY), for the use of researchers.

COMMENTARY

MENTORS: In 1904, her trumpet teacher Adolphe Dubois gave this written testimonial: "I am happy to testify to the real talent of my pupil, Edna White. Although but fourteen, she is already a brilliant performer. To a very original expression, she adds a truly remarkable technique." This opinion was seconded in writing by Julliard founder, Dr. Frank Damrosch, who offered continued encouragement and support throughout her career. [1 ]

IMPORTANT COLLABORATIONS: Torcum Bezazian, with whom she recorded and toured the vaudeville circuit, and the women in her brass quartet, most notably trombonist Ida (Bisbee) White, her sister-in-law. Later in life, her family was steadfast in their support of her many projects. Other friends and supporters included Vincent Bach, conductor Antonia Brico, and composers Virgil Thomson, Gena Branscomb and Georges Antheil. Trumpeter Louis Davidson said of her when she was 95: "... her mind operates at 100 miles per hour every waking minute of every day." [1, 2]

GENDER ISSUES: Despite Edna's obvious talent, her Julliard training and glowing endorsements from her trumpet teacher and others, her career path was limited. Had she been able to secure an orchestral position, she might have gained financial security, but the few women hired by orchestras prior to the 1970s were string players. Her only opportunities were with all-woman groups, her brass quartet, or as a soloist, in vaudeville, or with orchestras or concert bands with no women members.

   Consider these firsts: in 1957 (when Edna was 65) trumpeter Leona May Smith was the first to be hired (as an extra) by the Metropolitan Orchestra; in 1964 Marie Speziale was the first to win a position in a major orchestra (Cinncinnati Symphony); not until 1973 did a major U.S. orchestra (Saint Louis Symphony) hire a woman (Susan Slaughter) as principal trumpet. [9]

HER LEGACY: Edna's keen intelligence, musical talent and indomitable will led to her many achievements. At a time when most women stayed home to raise children, indeed, before women had the right to vote, Edna defied convention by choosing a career playing the trumpet, then considered a man's instrument. In later years, her work was recognized by many prominent musicians. Unfortunately, wider fame and financial security eluded her, hindered as she was during her prime playing years by a music world that devalued (and rarely hired) female brass players.  

Honors and Milestones: Edna's age noted in parentheses

1902:  Plays cornet solo at Carnegie Hall with concert band. (9)

1904:  Completes music studies at Julliard. (14)

1902-1909: Soloist at a summer resort in Ocean Grove, NJ. (age 9-17)

1910-1930: Leads and performs in several all-woman brass groups. (18-38)

1920s: Records for Edison and Columbia records.

             Stars in vaudeville with Torcum Bezazian. (28-38)

1934:  Plays first broadcast performance of Flight of the Bumblebee, WROR-NY radio (42)

1949:  First trumpeter ever to play a solo recital in Carnegie Hall, which results in

              favorable reviews in the NY Times and the NY Herald Tribune. (57)

1954:  Plays premier of George Antheil's Trumpet Sonata at Columbia University (62)

1957:  Plays "farewell recital" in Carnegie Hall (65)

1980:  Suite for Solo Trumpet and Orchestra, premiered in Greenfield, MA (88)

1981:  The Suite is recorded by Gaeton Berton and the Maryland Theater Orchestra (89)

1984:  Awarded (belated) Diploma from Julliard (92)

1985:  The Suite is performed in Carneigie Hall, Richard San Filipo, trumpet soloist (93)

1990:  Publishes The Night the Camel Sang, a book about vaudeville (98)

Edna White Discography:

Coming soon, an Edna White CD, available here!

Featuring Edna's solo trumpet recordings, a duet with Torcum Bezazian, her Suite for Solo Trumpet and Orchestra, recorded by trumpeter Gaetan Berton in 1981, and Edna's own words about "Life With My Trumpet." 

Edison Records: as trumpet soloist:

   The Debutante (Herbert L. Clarke), and Recollections of 1861-1865, 1920

   Bluebells of Scotland (arr. J. Levy), 1921

   When You and I Were Young, Maggie, (Butterfield), 1925

   Then You'll Remember Me (Balfe), and Sweet Genevieve (Tucker), 1926

   Sempre Libre from Traviata (Verdi) 1926

   With Torcum Bezazian: Forgotten, Edna on trumpet, vocal by Torcum, 1925

Columbia Records: Agnus Dei (Bizet) and Ave Maria (Gounod), 1921

    International Marches, Edna White, trumpet; Howard Kopp, xylophone, 1922

   Carnival of Venice, Edna White, trumpet; Henry Fuchs, piano, 1957 (private recording)

   Suite for Solo Trumpet and Orchestra, Edna White, composer; Gaetan Berton, trumpet soloist; and  the Maryland Theater Orchestra, 1981 (private recording)

SOURCES

1. Edna White papers: written memoirs, correspondance, programs, newpaper clips

2. Conversations between Susan Fleet and Edna White, May 1992.

3. Serving Proudly: a History of Women in the U.S. Navy, Susan H. Godson, 2001

4. Greenfield (MA) Recorder, July 21, 1984

5. The Night the Camel Sang, Edna White, 1990

6. NY Times review, February 20, 1949

7. NY Herald Tribune review, February 20, 1949.

8. A Woman and a Life in Service of the Trumpet: Edna White, Michel LaPlace, Brass Bulletin, 1984     9. "Edna White: Brasswoman Pioneer," Susan Fleet, Women of Note Quarterly, Nov. 1994