^M00:00:14 >> Carol Lynn Ward Bamford: Thank you all for coming tonight. [applause] This is one of the most amazing concerts you're going to hear tonight, because it brings together an instrument that is not ours but a collection that is ours, and Alessandra Barabaschi is going to tell us about that connection. I'd like to introduce her and she's going to tell us about the life and legacy of Leonora Jackson McKim. ^M00:00:38 [ Applause ] ^M00:00:48 >> Alessandra Barabaschi: Good evening. Thank you all for being here today. I'm amazed, there are so many. I'd like to thank the Library of Congress, Carol Lynn Ward Bamford, Anne McLean, and David Plylar for inviting me again. Thank you for, to Professor Cass [assumed spelling] for being here, again. And my special thanks to Dr. William and Professor Judy Sloan, who came a long way to join us this evening. Thank you very much. We'll talk later on about their relationship with a very special Stradivari instrument. It's a great honor to be here, it's an even greater honor to be back here. I told my partner the other day, there's only one thing better than being invited to hold a lecture at the Library of Congress, and that is to be invited a second time to do that. [laughter] So, some of you may remember that I held my first lecture here a couple of years ago, and in that occasion, we spoke about a special set of instruments made by Antonio Stradivari, the Medici Quintet. So, our journey began in Europe in the 15th century. This evening, as you've seen already from the slide, we will change continent and century, because we will talk about a very remarkable American artist, Leonora Jackson McKim. But before we embark on this new journey, please allow me to briefly introduce myself. I'm an Art Historian and an expert on the history of the instruments made by Antonio Stradivari and his sons. I research the past of their instruments, looking for new unpublished information, and I also try to correct historical mistakes when I find them. Stradivari was already famous in the past, and the stories of his instruments were very often not written by historians. So, sometimes historical mistakes were made and passed on, in a kind of copy and paste way, from a biographer to another. So, what I do, I read what's been written so far, if I find a mistake, I try to correct it, and I search for new information. So, my job resembles very often, a kind of investigation. For this reason, some of my colleagues have nicknamed me Sherlock, [laughter] and I'm very proud of my nickname. But now, enough about me, let's turn to Leonora Jackson McKim. During her youth, she was acclaimed as brilliant violinist, she had achieved fame against the odds, international fame. But once she died, 50 years ago, the music world had almost forgotten her. Why has her name since faded away, and who was this remarkable American artist? We'll find out this evening. Now, I had planned to begin my lecture by introducing you to the four members of the Jackson family, and in order to do that, I had found a suitable picture, which did not belong to the Library of Congress, so it was quite complicated to be granted permission to show you this evening this picture. And because I do not give up that easily, and some of you know me by now, I've decided that I will introduce you to the Jackson family using a picture, which is at the Library of Congress, like most of the material and pictures that you'll see this evening. So, you'll seen now the four members of the Jackson family, are you ready? Now, you'll see, on your left hand side, Leonora's mother, Elizabeth, on your right hand side, Leonora's father, Charles Jackson, and behind them, kind of in the second row, you'll see Leonora's brother, Ernest. And Leonora is also kind of there, it is a kind of family portrait, because she is portrayed in the magazine they are holding. So, yesterday, it would have been Leonora's 142nd birthday. She was born in February, on February 20, 1878, in Boston. She was 12 years younger than her brother, nevertheless, they got along quite well. Through her career, her brother firstly accompanied her on the piano, and later on, he became her manager. Leonora's father, Charles Jackson, was already 58 when Leonora was born. He was a wealthy construction engineer, who had little to do with music. The key role in Leonora's early life was played by her mother, Elizabeth. You see here, a nice picture of Leonora, her mother, and her brother. Now, Elizabeth Jackson, Leonora's mother, was a gifted concert singer, she dreamed of making a brilliant career as a singer. More than that, she was determined to become a great singer. Let me give you an example. Before Leonora was born, Elizabeth Jackson left Chicago, where the Jackson family lived, and spent two winters in Boston with her son, who was 9 at the time, because she wanted to polish up her singing by taking vocal lessons of a prominent teacher there. Once Leonora was only 2 years old, she was left behind in America at her grandparents place, while her mother and her brother, who was 14 by then, spent a good year in Europe, where Elizabeth Jackson took vocal lessons, firstly with a noted teacher, Luigi Vannuccini, in Florence, in Italy, and afterwards with the famous Mathilde Marchesi, in Vienna, in Austria. Unfortunately, Elizabeth Jackson's vocal efforts were not crowned with success. But she was a very determined woman, she decided that if she was not going to make it, her daughter, Leonora, would. She decided that Leonora was going to be a great singer. ^M00:09:56 ^M00:10:00 You see here, a quotation from Leonora Jackson McKim, you'll see several of them this evening, because I think that the best way to get to know her is through her own words. So, you see already from this quotation, the determination of her mother, to get a great singer out of her. Unfortunately for Leonora's mother, Leonora disliked singing, she was instead fascinated by the family piano. The instrument in question being, a Steinway Grande, a very expensive instrument. Little Leonora was asked to desist every time that she was caught tickling the ivories. But little Leonora would not give up, so this was the cause of major distress within the family. Until her grandfather suggested, she should be given a violin. Look what a lovely picture of Leonora I found here. Isn't this wonderful how proud she looks like with her violin? So, by the time she was roughly 6 years old, things were finally on the right track. As I mentioned, the Jackson's lived in Chicago, so Leonora became a pupil of Carl Johannes Becker for 4 years there, and after that, a student of Simon Jacobsohn. Jacobsohn had served as Concert Master in Theodore Thomas' orchestra. This is very important because Theodore Thomas was one of the best conductors in America, he had conducted the New York Philharmonic and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, among others. So, Leonora's mother, Elizabeth, consulted Thomas about her daughters prospects. Leonora played for Thomas, who declared her talent "rare", and suggested her to carry on her study abroad. Why did he do that? Why did he suggest her to go abroad? Because at the time, a finishing touch in Europe was considered essential for a soloist career. So, in 1891, when Leonora was 13 years old, she and her mother left Chicago and went to Paris, where she took private lessons with a professor of the Paris Conservatory. Everything went fine, she was talented, everything was good, until at the end of their first year there came devastating news, the entire family fortune was lost. But Leonora was determined as much as her mother, so she devised a plan. ^M00:14:10 ^M00:14:14 She and her brother were going to give little concerts in America at seaside resorts, she on the violin, her brother on the piano. They would play during the summer and with the proceeds she could then start in Europe in winter. The plan was such a success, that she was even invited to play at The White House for Mrs. Cleveland and some of the ladies of the Cabinet. She was also able to buy a Testore violin. Now, Leonora's biggest dream had always been to own a Stradivari Violin. Carlo Giuseppe Testore, as you can hear already from the name, was an Italian violin maker of Milan. He was a contemporary of Stradivari, and of course a Testore violin was not a Stradivari violin, but it was already a good start. ^M00:15:32 ^M00:15:36 During her second year in Paris, Leonora started with these two gentleman, Ambroise Thomas and Charles Dancla. Thomas was Director of the Paris Conservatory, Dancla had been professor there for over 35 years. So, we're talking about two of the most distinguished musicians in Europe at the time. By the way, I've decided to use this picture of Dancla because it belonged to Leonora Jackson McKim and it has a dedication, in French of course, from Dancla, to his little dear pupil, Leonora Jackson, and I found it sweet, so. Both of them were very impressed by Leonora's talent and they suggested her to continue her study in Berlin, where she hoped to be studying with this gentleman, Joseph Joachim. Joachim was at the time, Director of Hochshule fur Musik in Berlin, he was one of the best violinists in the world, if not the best one, at the time. Of course, Leonora hoped to be able to study with him, but to her disappointment, when she got there, when she got to Berlin, she found out that she was too young to enter the music school. So, she was placed under the instruction of Carl Markees, Joachim's favorite pupil. It was Markees who told Joachim, Leonora is a talent. And now, let's see what Joachim thought of her qualities. This is a quotation from Joachim, he wrote, "I have heard Miss Leonora Jackson play Vieuxtemp's Ballade and Polonaise for the violin, and was struck with her great talent. She played with genuine expression, and displayed a command of her instrument most unusual at her age. If she continues to study, she cannot fail to become a violinist of the greatest eminence." This was quite a compliment. And I've chosen this picture of Joachim because it was taken by Leonora Jackson. So, at the beginning of her second year in Berlin, she was finally allowed to join Joachim's class, but the biggest obstacle remained, lack of money. So, she gave several recitals, fund raising recitals in the U.S., between 1893 and 1894. And 20 prominent Americans, among whom were George Pullman, General Horace Porter, and George Vanderbilt, subscribed a generous sum to enable Leonora Jackson to finish her study abroad. This is very important because we will see that Leonora Jackson McKim never forgot this generous gesture, and we will see what she in turn did, later on. ^M00:19:55 Thanks to the generosity of her 20 American patrons, she was also able to buy a new violin, this time she bought a Storioni violin. Now, among her material, I found also clippings from an American newspaper, which had published the news at the time that Leonora had bought a new violin. And in this news, it was written that her violin was valued at $3,000, and that Lorenzo Storioni had been a pupil of Antonio Stradivari. Now, I do not know if Leonora Jackson told that to the journalist, or where he got the news from or if he made it up, I don't know. But in any case, when Lorenzo Storioni was born, Antonio Stradivari was dead since 7 years, so it's sadly possible that Storioni had been a pupil of Stradivari. So now, you see how historical mistakes are made and divulged. But anyway, Storioni was a Cremonese like Stradivari, he had his workshop in Cremona like Stradivari, only 100 years later. So, you see how Leonora slowly, slowly gets closer to her goal to get a Stradivari. ^M00:21:34 ^M00:21:38 Her study in Berlin proceeded so well that she could give her debut in Berlin on October 17, 1896, with the Berlin Philharmonic under the direction of Joseph Joachim. So, Joachim, the great master, directed the orchestra. It was a great privilege, and of course it was a triumph. One year later, Leonora Jackson was awarded with the prestigious Mendelssohn State Prize, a huge achievement for an American musician. But now, it was time for her to start her career. ^M00:22:33 ^M00:22:38 So, London's debut in 1898 was a great success, and together with a series of concerts that she gave afterwards, made her prominent in the UK. Afterwards, she also gave concerts in several German cities, as well as in Switzerland, Belgium, and Austria. Meanwhile, the European Royal Houses also took an interest in her. She appeared before the German Empress in Berlin, was invited to perform for King Oscar II of Sweden in Norway, and was summoned to play before Queen Victoria at Windsor Castle. Now, Queen Victoria was so pleased with Leonora Jackson, that she presented her with a gold brooch decorated with sapphires and rubies that Leonora Jackson always wore for concerts. And you see the details of the golden brooch there, and also nice picture of Leonora wearing it. Now, do not ask me what happened to the brooch, I tried to find out, I was not able to. If someone knows it, please do let me know, I'm curious, but I don't know what happened to it. So, Leonora Jackson came back to the U.S. in early 1900, she had been away for 6 long years, and maybe because of that, some critics froze her out. After her very first concert in New York with the New York Philharmonic on January 5, 1900, a critic criticized her choice to play the Brahms Concerto. Of course, it's possible that she hadn't mastered the Concerto yet, but her several successes in Europe proved that she was talented. At any rate, the American audience seemed not to get enough of her, who was in demand in every state. Within 2 years, she performed more that 300 concerts. ^M00:25:39 ^M00:25:43 After that, she went back to Europe, where she toured there for 3 years, before coming back to the U.S. for her third transcontinental tour in 1905. Now, I imagined you would be curious to know where she's been playing in America. So, I began to make a list of all the cities, but I soon realized that if I was going to read them to you, we would miss the concert after that. So, I just made a list of the states where she was, and I'll read them to you in alphabetical order, just bear with me, there are 37. So, she was in Alabama, Arizona, British Columbia, California, Colorado, D.C., Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pasadena, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin, Wyoming, you name it, she's been there. She was everywhere. After such a series of triumphs, she was finally able to buy a Stradivari violin, yes. And this violin, like her previous instrument, had something to do with Joseph Joachim. Now, you may remember, she had previously a Storioni violin, and that violin had been found by Joachim for Leonora in London. He had found it, he had heard it, he had played it, and he thought, that's the right one for Leonora. In the case of the Stradivari violin, Joachim had owned it at some point, then he had sold it to one of his pupils who brought it over to America, where it was bought by Leonora Jackson, probably at the end of 1906. The first news in a newspaper is dated January 1907, it was given the news that she bought a Stradivari violin, and we know that her Storioni violin broke in December 1906. So, my guess is, she bought it in December after her violin broke. ^M00:28:46 ^M00:28:51 You see here a quotation from the distinguished violinist Oleh Krysa, who defined this violin, "the seventh wonder of the world". And this is really a rare violin, it was made by Antonio Stradivari in 1714. During a time that it's described by his experts, as his "golden period". Now, we don't have time unfortunately this evening to go through different periods of Stradivari's career, maybe we'll have the chance one day to dedicate a lecture to Stradivari's life, maybe I'll be back for a third time, who knows. But I'd like you to pay attention to two details that you can easily see also from these wonderful pictures here. The first one is this beautiful two piece back, made of maple wood, cut on the quarter, with vivid curls of medium width, descending from the center joint. ^M00:30:06 And the second one, is the color of this particular varnish, it was orange/red over a golden brown, it was a characteristic of Stradivari's "golden period". Now, this violin still carries Leonora Jackson's name, and she kept it for 13 years. Dr. William and Professor Judy Sloan had been caring for this instrument since 1984, for 36 years. And it's thanks to them that we'll be able this evening after my lecture to listen to the beautiful sound of this instrument. [applause] Well deserved. ^M00:31:04 [ Applause Continues ] ^M00:31:13 Back to Leonora, another big news of the year 1907, she got married. On June 4, 1907, she married Michael McLaughlin. She was 29, he was 36 and divorced. Now, I found the entry in the marriage registry in Boston, and please pay attention from your left hand side, look at the eighth column where it says "Occupation". Close to Michael McLaughlin's name it's giving us "Occupation, Lawyer". For Leonora Jackson, there is nothing. So, I don't think that she did not want to say what she was doing, I tend to believe that at the time, her occupation as female performer was not considered appropriate. Traditionally, women had to abandon the stage after they got married, and the same did Leonora Jackson. So, she abandon the stage, she did not come back to the concert circuit. Sadly, the marriage was not a happy one and it didn't last long. Afterwards, she took a year, a sabbatical incognito, in Albany, close to New York, to recover. You see here, this is a quotation from her, it's from an interview that she gave during her time in Albany. And you can see from this quotation, how sad she must have been, and also how exhausting her previous career, previous life must have been. So many concerts, of course she was absolutely cowed. But a smile returned on her face a couple of years later because she remarried. In October 1915, she married a widower, Dr. William Duncan McKim of Baltimore. Despite the 23 year age difference, the marriage was a happy one. They had several things in common. For instance, they loved to travel, they made a world tour together in 1926-27, they had been practically everywhere. They were in Naples, then Pompeii, Nazareth, Jerusalem, Kirov, they went to Calcutta, Dehli, Java, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Japan, and they were even in Havana. Another great passion of both of them was music. ^M00:34:45 ^M00:34:49 Dr. McKim was an enthusiastic Organist and he had built in their home in D.C. a majestic organ, 36 feet high with 2,160 golden pipes. To give you a feeling how huge that thing was, have a look at the piano underneath, it's the central picture. Look how small the piano looks compared to that thing. All the pictures were taken in their place, in their home in D.C. Dr. McKim was also a famous and renowned author, he had published two books, which were quite famous. So, through him, Leonora Jackson McKim got to know a different world, a new world. For instance, Albert Einstein and his wife were friends of the McKim's. Einstein appreciated the books of Dr. McKim, which were a constant subject between the, in the correspondence between the two men. Albert Einstein had sent several pictures to Leonora Jackson McKim, I've chosen this one because it has a lovely dedication. It's in German of course. It says, "To Mrs. McKim, in remembrance of our evening with Bach and Handel." And I found it very nice. Albert Einstein also sent a lovely letter of condolences to Leonora Jackson McKim when Dr. McKim died in 1935. Now, tell me, does this look confusing? Very good, that's its purpose. These are some of the literary works of Leonora Jackson McKim. In the 1920's, she was probably inspired by the literary work of her husband, so she decided that she was going to be a writer, with the result that she wrote dozens and dozens of essays, crime novels, fiction stories, and plays. She even engaged a literary agent, Lawrence D'Orsay, who was quite famous at the time, he had an office in Hollywood, and he had written several instruction books for authors. Unfortunately, he could not help her much, because as far as I could find out, none of her literary works have been published. But I wanted to mention this to you, and also to mention her painting activity to show you what a volcano she was. She was constantly working on some kind of a project. These paintings are of course from Leonora Jackson, and are some of the paintings that you can find here at the Library of Congress. So, we said, Leonora Jackson never got back on the concert circuit, but she gave occasionally concerts for charity purposes, in Honolulu, where the McKim's loved to reside, and at her place in D.C. She had sold her Stradivari violin in 1919, but in the early 1930's, she had bought another one, another Stradivari violin, which is called the Goetz. ^M00:39:29 ^M00:39:34 I think that, I personally think that this sentence very well summarizes the key role played by Leonora Jackson to improve the acknowledgement towards American musicians. ^M00:39:53 It says, "Leonora Jackson was the first American violinist whom European opinions recognized to equal any of its great artists and who conquered all prejudice as to the supposed inferiority of American talent." ^M00:40:12 ^M00:40:16 This is a quotation from Leonora Jackson McKim, and I thoroughly believe that she thought that. Now, I've busied myself with this lady for quite some time, and you really, when you read her diaries you really realize that she always thought that her triumphs were the triumphs of her nation. Leonora Jackson McKim died on January 7, 1969, almost forgotten by the music world. She however, never forgot how generously her American patrons supported the beginning of her career. In her will, she bequeathed her personal property, which had been valued at around $800,000, to the Library of Congress to establish a fund, The McKim Fund, to support the commissioning and performance of chamber music for violin and piano. She had also bequeathed $30,000 to the Peabody Conservatory in Baltimore to establish a memorial award in her name. And she had donated several handwrought art objects to the Smithsonian Institution. She was a really remarkable American woman. And I thank you very much for having given me the opportunity to remember her. Thank you. ^M00:42:17 [ Applause ] ^M00:42:27 Thank you. ^M00:42:28 [ Applause Continues ] ^M00:42:36 I've been asked to remain here in case you have questions, that's why I'm not leaving. [laughter] I don't know if you have questions. >> David Plylar: And if you do, please wait for a microphone, we're happy to bring one to you. >> Audience Member: So, you really didn't mention, earlier in her career, did she face discrimination or challenges because she was a woman? It sounded like she had a charmed musical career in the beginning, it wasn't until getting married that it became more difficult. So, I was curious if you could address that. >> Alessandra Barabaschi: Well, it was traditionally so, let's put it this way, Maud Powell, you know, Maud Powell, great American violinist was spoke about earlier on this evening. She was so clever that when she married Sonny, she made a manager out of him so she could carry on playing. Because traditionally it was seen like that because it was expected of a woman to be home to get children, so they had to leave the stage. In Europe, she didn't really have to fight as a woman because, I wouldn't say that she had been treated differently, for instance the Mendelssohn State Prize had been given before her, awarded before her to Geraldine Morgan as an American, and she was also a female performer. But it was just traditionally so. I don't know if you know the famous cellist, the Portuguese cellist, Guilhermina Suggia, she had been liaised with Pablo Casals for several years, and she decided not to get married because she didn't want to leave the stage. It was like that at the time. But I think at that point when she got married that she was simply exhausted, she had done too much, too many concerts for too many years, it was simply too much. >> David Plylar: There's one on this side. >> Audience Member: Thank you for your very interesting introduction. We heard from the volcano, we heard about her creativity, about her paintings, we heard about her writing. >> Alessandra Barabaschi: Yeah. >> Audience Member: So, my question is two-fold, very brief. Could it be that she, and you would be able to answer this with one sentence, a creative woman of that caliber, would she have started to compose something? Given that she bequeathed and that she tried to initiate music, piano and violin music as we will hear. So, there's that interest in, did she ever try, is it amongst her, you have looked at her papers so maybe there is something that she tried. And the second question is about her writing. You said nothing was every published, but maybe amongst these dozens of stories some are in her papers, and you would have been somebody to look at them. So, could you give us a sense of, are they silly, are they extravagant, are they hilarious? What is that writing of such an extraordinary woman, what does it sound like? >> Alessandra Barabaschi: What was the first question? [laughter] I had it in mind, I had the answer. What was the first question again? Sorry, what was the first question? Ah, the compositions, yeah. >> Audience Member: The first is about whether she was creative on the musical side, and the other side is what's the quality of her writing? >> Alessandra Barabaschi: Yeah, yeah. The compositions, yes, she also tried to compose. In the Library of Congress among her papers, there are also a couple of compositions. She began then but she didn't finish them. You could see that she tried them. I think that she worked on that, inspired by her brother, because Ernest, as a pianist, had composed and copyrighted three works. And I guess she began in that way, but she soon realized that it was nothing for her. So, you see, you've got a couple of lines, and that's it, not much. About her writings, I've read most of them, one is really interesting because she explained how she tried to sell the house in D.C. after Dr. McKim died. And then you find out in this novel, what happened to the organ. Don't you want to know what happened to the 2,000-? It was just thrown away. I found such a, it's such a pity. Because it was such a big house, she couldn't find anyone who could buy it. She found such realtists who pretended to sell it for her, and they just, yeah, tried to get her money out of that. But-. ^M00:47:59 ^M00:48:04 Some of her plays are interesting, but you have to get, to read them with a mind in the 19th century. They are very, well they're very much, well they show very much her world. And some of them would be eventually interesting for, also for today, for the public. Others are just, I think, I feel, too far away from us. She wrote any kind of thing. Some of the things come, or the main subjects come out of her world, so she explains how to play a violin. She has written this story of a small child who starts to play the violin. And then, you see also, it turns kind of biographical novel, but instead of her mother there is a father because Leonora Jackson didn't get along that well with her mother. My opinion is that she had been used to do so much since the very beginning, since her youth, that she could not rest, she could not stop doing something. And when she had to abandon the stage, she had to find something else, so she started painting, she did sculpture, she wrote, it was part of this restlessness, how do you call it? She could not just enjoy her life as a dame, sort of, she was not use to that. ^M00:49:59 ^M00:50:03 >> Audience Member: What happened to her Stradivarius? Did she still have it when she died, or? >> Alessandra Barabaschi: No, she sold it before that. You mean the second one? >> Audience Member: The second one. >> Alessandra Barabaschi: It belongs to a private owner and I'm not allowed to say his name, but it's in good hands. Yeah, she sold it before she died, yeah. ^M00:50:26 ^M00:50:32 >> Audience Member: You mentioned, as a historian that you're to correct a record. What research provided you evidence that there's evidence, that there was corrections that needed to be made, and what were those corrections? >> Alessandra Barabaschi: What you mean? Sorry, I don't know. >> Audience Member: So, you said as a historian, you look at-. >> Alessandra Barabaschi: Oh yeah. >> Audience Member: What's been written, and you come up with new evidence, new information that corrects that record. >> Alessandra Barabaschi: Yeah. >> Audience Member: And so, what is it that you found that was correct, that you needed to correct? >> Alessandra Barabaschi: You mean now, in Leonora Jackson's story or in my career? >> Audience Member: Well, I was-. >> Alessandra Barabaschi: In my, as some examples? >> Audience Member: I was thinking this, but-. >> Alessandra Barabaschi: What we were able to do when we started researching together and the stories of this violin, was to put together pieces of information that were not there. What is vital for me is to try, I see the story, the 350 year story of an instrument like a big puzzle, and every information is like a small piece that helps me eventually to see the full picture. What we did in this case, was to be able to find additional information which we didn't know at the beginning, and also if I'm not mistaken, if I remember correctly, we were also able to find out when she got the violin because it was, before I started researching this instrument it was supposed to have been bought by her later on. So, we were able to say, no, she did it between December 1906 and 1907. >> David Plylar: Please join me in thanking Alessandra. >> Alessandra Barabaschi: Thank you. Thank you. ^M00:52:29 [ Applause ] ^E00:52:37