Sassoil, Strasenburg, Paret, Rosenbloom, V. Stanek, Burian, and Hermannsfeld

[Elizabeth Volpé Bligh]

I know that Ada Sassoli was a student of Salzedo’s, maybe even one of his wives. He
dedicated his Variations on an Ancient Theme to her, if I’m not mistaken.
Betty Paret wrote a book for beginning harpists which is still widely used.

[alexander-rider]

Ada Sassoli, (1887?-1946), was actually a classmate of Salzedo’s I think, and they both graduated from the Paris conservatoire on the same day. Ada was among the first harpists to record as a soloist and she recorded music by Hasselmans and Zabel on Victor on the old 78rpm discs. I have a photograph on my computer if you’d like it; you might already have it though….She was also a most favoured student of Hasselmans and when Pierne was scouting for a young harpist to play the Konzertst?ck, Hasselmans immediately recommended Ada (even though Pierne chose the youthful Henriette Renie in her place). All of this information is not completely rock-solid. Have you read Owen’s “Eolian to thunder” ( a bio of Salzedo)? There is bound to be a lot of interesting info on Ada in this book and there is definitely an absolutely stunning photograph of she and Salzedo on graduation day in 1901.

[Calista Anne Koch]

I am doing some research on these harp figures.

[paul-knoke]

Hi Calista

Lucile Johnson Rosenbloom donated her music library to the Sibley
Library. Most of the catalogue for it is available on line. She
studied with Tournier for a while, but I don’t know who she studied
with here in the states. Betty Strasenburg is still around, though she
hasn’t played harp in a long time. She earned her degree at Eastman,
studying with Eileen Malone.

Is there any specific information you’re looking for? I can probably
find out more for you, but I’m not sure what the questions are and I
don’t want to send a lot of facts you don’t want!

Cheers,

Paul

[unknown-user]

First, just because they had their photo taken together did not make Sassoli and Salzedo an item. His first wife was Viola Gramm, his second Lucile Lawrence, his third Marjorie Call. That’s all. Wives, that is. Lucile Johnson was a student of his for a time and a member of his first harp ensemble. They may have had an affair as the L-u-c-i-l-e motif in all of his Five Poetical Studies was for her, not Lucile Lawrence; so he had some kind of passion for her, artistically at least. She was later in a relationship with Marcela Kozikova, whom she promoted vigorously for a while. They made a strange duo-harp recording of the Debussy Danses, sent out on floppy plastic lps.
I don’t think there was much on Sassoli in the Salzedo biography. You can find more in back issues of the American Harp Journal and such periodicals. Try a periodical index search at the library.

[Calista Anne Koch]

So Viola was “Mimi”?

[HBrock25]

Lucile Rosenbloom was married to my uncle Charles. She was the founder of the harp department at the Eastman School of Music. She toured with Toscanini, I believe in the 30’s.

[patricia-jaeger]

Calista, In due course Roslyn Rensch-Noah (now living on St Simons Island in Georgia), retired harpist who wrote wonderful books on the harp and those who played it and taught it, may publish a “family tree” of the harp teachers and their students, reaching back as far as there are any known records. Some of us contributed what we knew and sent it to her.

[Elizabeth Volpé Bligh]

I just found this old post from 2005, and I am so embarrassed that I fired off a response before doing my research. I’ll be more careful in future!

[Author]

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