Leona May Smith

Leona May Smith (September 23, 1914 – December 1, 1999) was an American musician, a trumpeter and cornettist, based in New York City for most of her career.

Leona May Smith
Leona May Smith, from a 1951 newspaper.
BornSeptember 23, 1914
Bridgeport, Connecticut
DiedDecember 1, 1999
OccupationMusician

Early life

Leona May Smith was born in Bridgeport, Connecticut, the daughter of Willard R. Smith and Carrie M. Brown Smith. Her father was an amateur musician. She started playing the cornet on radio from childhood.[1]

Career

In 1929, still a teenager, Smith played first trumpet in the Boston Women's Symphony, with Ethel Leginska conducting.[1] In 1942, she won the Ossip Gabrilowitsch Scholarship Fund Award from the National Orchestra Association.[2]

She was a soloist in the Radio City Music Hall Orchestra from 1943 to 1945, and was the first woman trumpeter in the Metropolitan Opera stage band, where she was engaged from 1960 to 1961.[3][4] She also played with Fred Waring.[5] She was featured as a soloist in the forty-member Seuffert Band, a longtime institution in Queens.[6][7] She also led her own ensemble, the Leona May Smith Dance Band,[8] and composed works, including "Mignon Fantasy" (performed in 1961).[4] "She has been hailed by critics as being not only the greatest woman cornettist," reported one newspaper in 1940, "but has been unquestionably conceded to be one of the greatest soloists of this generation."[5]

Smith and her husband founded and co-directed a summer music program,[9][10] Ethan Allen Music Camp (later known as Music For Youth), in Craftsbury, Vermont,[11][12] from 1949 to 1957.[13][14] In 1961 she gave a presentation to a conference of school music teachers in Brooklyn.[15] After 1973, she lived in Plymouth, Massachusetts, where she ran a home for elderly women.[2] In 1993, Smith and two trombonists (Betty Glover and Melba Liston) were honored as Brasswomen Pioneers at the first International Women's Brass Conference, held in St. Louis.[16][17][18]

Personal life

Leona May Smith married music teacher and band director George F. Seuffert in 1933.[19] They had four sons, George, Edward, Peter, and Frank.[6][8][20] They later divorced. She died in 1999.[1][21]

References
  1. Leona May Smith, Brass History.
  2. Card, Robyn Dewey. Women as classically-trained trumpet players in the United States (Thesis). West Virginia University Libraries. doi:10.33915/etd.2891.
  3. Wallace, John; McGrattan, Alexander (2012-01-31). The Trumpet. Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0-300-17816-6.
  4. "Leona May Smith Scores at Seuffert Concert in Forest Pk". Kings County Chronicle. 1961-07-18. p. 9. Retrieved 2020-09-27 – via Newspapers.com.
  5. "Leona May Smith on S. U. Festival Program". The Daily Item. 1940-04-19. p. 10. Retrieved 2020-09-27 – via Newspapers.com.
  6. Wilson, John S. (1971-06-27). "The Seuffert Band Is in Its 16th Year of Serenading in Queens". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2020-09-27.
  7. Sheridan, Dick (1999-04-18). "Band Shell Wins an Encore". Daily News. p. 343. Retrieved 2020-09-27 – via Newspapers.com.
  8. Johnson, Lyn (1966-07-24). "Modest, Gifted Mother Still Blows Own Horn". Daily News. p. 325. Retrieved 2020-09-27 – via Newspapers.com.
  9. "Hamlet to be Presented Tonight". The Newport Daily Express. 1955-08-06. p. 3. Retrieved 2020-09-27 – via Newspapers.com.
  10. "Craftsbury Ethan Allen Music Center Opens Season Soon". The Newport Daily Express. 1951-05-26. p. 3. Retrieved 2020-09-27 – via Newspapers.com.
  11. "Present Matched Flags to Ethan Allen Music Camp". Hardwick Gazette. 1949-08-25. p. 4. Retrieved 2020-09-27 – via Newspapers.com.
  12. "Music for Everyone". The Barre Daily Times. 1954-07-29. p. 6. Retrieved 2020-09-27 – via Newspapers.com.
  13. Durkee, Mrs John A. (1949-09-13). "Unique Music Camp at Elligo Lake Founded by the G. F. Seufferts Jr". The Barre Daily Times. p. 5. Retrieved 2020-09-27 – via Newspapers.com.
  14. "Seuffert Music Camp Opens for Summer Season". The Newport Daily Express. 1957-07-05. p. 1. Retrieved 2020-09-27 – via Newspapers.com.
  15. "Talks, Demonstrations at Music Workshop". The Tablet. 1961-06-24. p. 11. Retrieved 2020-09-27 – via Newspapers.com.
  16. "Historic Women Musicians". Susan Fleet's Website. Retrieved 2020-09-27.
  17. Ammer, Christine (2001). Unsung: A History of Women in American Music. Hal Leonard Corporation. p. 261. ISBN 978-1-57467-061-5.
  18. "IWBC Awards 1993". International Women's Brass Conference. Retrieved 2020-09-27.
  19. McFarland, Steve (1995-05-11). "Bandmaster Seuffert Dies". Daily News. p. 1917. Retrieved 2020-09-27 – via Newspapers.com.
  20. "Activities of Former Newporters Noted". The Newport Daily Express. 1959-10-10. p. 7. Retrieved 2020-09-27 – via Newspapers.com.
  21. "Leona May Smith, 1914-1999" (PDF). The IWBC Newsletter. 4: 1. Winter 1999.
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