Sigma Alpha Iota

sai-national.org • Spring 2024 3 Grace Notes F ormer NVP Ritual (1984-1988) Geraldine "Gerry" Cormier Hubbell passed away on January 18, 2024. She received her Bachelor of Music degree at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette in 1959 and a Master of Fine Arts from Tulane University in 1971, majoring in piano performance. She was initiated by the Iota Omicron Chapter in 1956 and served the chapter as treasurer and president. She later became a member of the Lafayette (LA) Alumnae Chapter, served as Omega Province Officer, and then served on the NEB as NVP Ritual and Fraternity Education. Hubbell was the official accompanist for two national conventions in Minneapolis and Cincinnati. She was the recipient of the Sword of Honor, Rose of Honor, Wreath of Honor, Diamond Sword, Rose of Dedication, Rose of Constancy, and Ring of Excellence. Her musical career included being an independent piano teacher, church organist, professional accompanist for Columbia Artists, university teacher, and staff accompanist. While in New Orleans, she worked as a piano teacher at Ursuline Academy, a church organist at the St. Jude Shrine, and accompanist for the Loyola Opera Workshops, Tulane Opera Workshops, and the Metropolitan Opera auditions. After moving to Lafayette, she had a career as a private piano teacher and was certified as a Master Piano Teacher by the Music Teachers National Association (MTNA). She worked as the staff pianist at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. Later, she spent eight years in arts administration as the executive director of the Acadiana Symphony Orchestra, as well as the publisher of CLASSICAL magazine. As a professional accompanist, she performed on the concert stage with violinists Endre Balogh, Eugene Fodor, Xiao Lu Li, and Daniel Phillips; violist Gilad Karni; and singers Brian Schexnayder, Elizabeth Futral, Ruth Falcon, Brenda Boozer, Martha Ann Thigpen, Peter Lightfoot, Joseph Wolverton, Wanda Brister, Patricia Woodard, David Bernard, and Susan Straley. Hubbell received awards as a Woman of Achievement for the City of Lafayette in 1982 and was recognized for her achievements in 1999 by Connections, an organization for women. She was also named one of seven "Women Who Mean Business" in Lafayette in 2000. She and her husband, Friend of the Arts Gerald Joseph Hubbell, MD, were both honored by the Chorale Acadienne and the Acadiana Symphony Orchestra for their support of the arts in the Acadiana region. Remembering Gerry Hubbell SAI recently learned of the passing of Member Laureate Dr. Roslyn Rensch Erbes Noah on November 6, 2021 in Manhattan, NY. Initiated by Beta Chapter at Northwestern University in 1980, and honored as a Member Laureate in 2003, she was a beloved harpist, author, and historian. The cover of her book Harps and Harpists, seen here, features an oil painting by Jamie McMahan depicting Roslyn in the early 1950s playing her mother's Starke model Wurlitzer harp. Roslyn was born in 1923 in Detroit, Michigan to parents Carl and Maria Rensch. After moving to Evanston, IL, in 1929, her family attended a recital by harpist Alberto Salvi. Roslyn soon began harp studies with Salvi, who had been called the "harpmaker of the world." She continued her studies with him during her bachelor's and master's degrees at Northwestern University; she also studied for one summer with Marcel Grandjany, a French- American harpist and composer who taught at Juilliard from 1938-1975. In 1946, she became the principal harpist for the Chicago Civic Orchestra and remained in that position for six years. Her interest in the harp's history led her to study musicology at Northwestern University in 1953 and the University of Illinois in 1954. Because of her research on the visual representations of the harp, she also obtained a master's degree in art history from the University of Illinois, followed by a PhD in art history at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She left lasting contributions to harp research by donating 90 percent of her private collection of music, papers, and recordings to the University of Illinois in 1989, as well as to the International Harp Archives at Brigham Young University. In 1965, Roslyn joined the faculty at Indiana University in Terre Haute, where she served as professor of harp and art history until her retirement in 1988. She served as vice president of the American Harp Society from 1977–1980 and then helped to establish the World Harp Congress. She went on to serve on the Board of Directors of both organizations. Harpist Roslyn Rensch Passes

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