Lucie Bigelow Rosen
Encyclopedia
Lucie Bigelow Rosen was a Theremin
soloist known for popularising the use of the instrument in the 1930s and 1940s, and founder of the Caramoor festival.
By 1930 Lucie was part of a ten person theremin ensemble rehearsing for their first debut performance at the Carnegie Hall with Leon Theremin
. Sometime afterward, the Rosens offered Theremin the use of their 37 West Fifty-fourth Street townhouse at low rent. By 1938 Leon Theremin needed money to return to Russia and, according to the Rosen's daughter Anne Stern, Walter offered him ten thousand dollars to create a new machine for Lucie together with all technical papers and rights to produce more for personal use only.
After Walter died in 1951, Lucie expanded the musical performances they had both started in 1940 into the Caramoor festival.
Theremin
The theremin , originally known as the aetherphone/etherophone, thereminophone or termenvox/thereminvox is an early electronic musical instrument controlled without discernible physical contact from the player. It is named after its Russian inventor, Professor Léon Theremin, who patented the device...
soloist known for popularising the use of the instrument in the 1930s and 1940s, and founder of the Caramoor festival.
Life
Rosen was born Lucie Bigelow Dodge in 1890, and married the lawyer and banker Walter Bigelow Rosen in 1914. They shared a common passion in art and culture, especially Italian, making frequent European trips and collecting works of art for their Caramoor estate that they developed from 1929 to 1939.By 1930 Lucie was part of a ten person theremin ensemble rehearsing for their first debut performance at the Carnegie Hall with Leon Theremin
Léon Theremin
Léon Theremin was a Russian and Soviet inventor. He is most famous for his invention of the theremin, one of the first electronic musical instruments. He is also the inventor of interlace, a technique of improving the picture quality of a video signal, widely used in video and television technology...
. Sometime afterward, the Rosens offered Theremin the use of their 37 West Fifty-fourth Street townhouse at low rent. By 1938 Leon Theremin needed money to return to Russia and, according to the Rosen's daughter Anne Stern, Walter offered him ten thousand dollars to create a new machine for Lucie together with all technical papers and rights to produce more for personal use only.
After Walter died in 1951, Lucie expanded the musical performances they had both started in 1940 into the Caramoor festival.
External links
Audio and Video
- Lucy Bigelow Rosen interview 1938 (restored) 2 minutes 38 seconds radio interview linked from http://www.thereminvox.com/filemanager/list/1/