Ralph Lyford
{{Short description|American conductor (1882–1927)}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=October 2024}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Ralph Lyford
| image = Ralph_Lyford.jpg
| image_size = 150 px
| caption = Ralph Lyford{{cite web
| url=https://www.loc.gov/pictures/resource/ggbain.16072/
| title = Ralph Lyford Asst Conductor Boston Opera Mrs " " (Ella Gillis) of Ballet
| publisher = Bain News Service
| access-date = April 20, 2009}}
| other_names =
| known_for = Castle Agrazant, founding Cincinnati Opera
| education = New England Conservatory of Music
| birth_date = February 22, 1882
| birth_place = Worcester, Massachusetts, United States
| death_date = {{death_date and age|1927|9|3|1882|2|22|}}
| death_place = Cincinnati, Ohio, U.S.
| occupation = Composer, Conductor
| spouse = Ella Gillis
}}
Ralph Lyford (February 22, 1882 – September 3, 1927) was an American composer and conductor. He rose to prominence as the managing director of the Cincinnati Opera and as a 20th-century advocate for opera to be written and performed in English.
He was married to Ella Gillis, a ballet dancer.
Biography
Born in Worcester, Massachusetts, he began studies at age 12 and 6 years later graduated from Boston's New England Conservatory of Music.{{cite book |last=Hipsher |first=Edward |title=AMERICAN OPERA and Its Composers|chapter=Ralph Lyford|year=1927|access-date=October 7, 2010|publisher=Theodore Presser Co.|chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/americanopera030456mbp/page/n307/mode/2up}}{{cite web|access-date=February 27, 2010|url=https://www.pbs.org/wnet/dancin/php/details.php?id=734|title=Who's Dancing Now|publisher=PBS}}{{Dead link|date=March 2021}} Lyford studied under George Whitefield Chadwick at the New England Conservatory of Music, and studied under Arthur Nikisch in Leipzig.
Ralph Lyford assisted Claude Debussy in preparing his Le martyre de Saint Sébastien for its premiere. He served as assistant conductor in the US for the San Carlo Opera Company under the management of Henry Russell. Lyford was associate conductor of the Boston Opera Company from 1908–1914, working as a member of Max Rabinoff's staff and for a short time assisted in the opera department at the New England Conservatory.{{cite web |title=To Celebrate Anniversary |date=March 6, 1912|access-date=March 29, 2021|publisher=The Harvard Crimson|url=https://www.thecrimson.com/article/1912/3/6/to-celebrate-anniversary-pthe-pierian-sodality/}} Later he conducted 3 seasons from 1912-1915 of over 200 presentations of operas with the Aborn Opera Company.
In 1912, Lyford conducted Lucia di Lammermoor at the Opera Company of Boston.{{cite web |title= Joseph Urban Papers, 1893-1998|access-date=March 29, 2021|url=https://findingaids.library.columbia.edu/ead/nnc-rb/ldpd_4079423/dsc/2#subseries_14}}
He was hired in 1916 to organize the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music and served as the head of that program. In 1920, he founded the Cincinnati Opera.{{cite web |last=Hutton |first=Mary Ellyn|title=Opera "Fusion" in Cincinnati|date=November 15, 2007|access-date=April 6, 2009|url=http://www.musicincincinnati.com/site/news_2007/Opera_Fusion_in_Cincinnati.html}}{{cite book |last=Koff |first=Stephen|title=Cincinnati Magazine|article=Classical Acts|date=June 1, 1983|access-date=March 29, 2021|url={{Google books|id=JR4DAAAAMBAJ |keywords="ralph+lyford" |plainurl=yes}}}} In 1925, he was appointed associate conductor under Fritz Reiner. He led the opera during its first formative seasons.{{cite web|url=http://library.cincymuseum.org/topics/c/files/cintizoo/chsbull-v30-n1-gra-007.pdf|title=Grand Opera Comes to the Zoo|author = Joseph E. Holliday | access-date=March 29, 2021}} During his tenure, he produced and conducted 234 performances of 30 operas including Martha, Hänsel and Gretel, and Lohengrin.{{cite web|url=http://www.cincinnatiopera.org/wagner-in-cincinnati/|title=Wagner in Cincinnati|publisher=Cincinnati Opera|access-date=January 23, 2012|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120327074423/http://www.cincinnatiopera.org/wagner-in-cincinnati/|archive-date=March 27, 2012}}
Lyford died in Cincinnati, Ohio in 1927 on September 3 of heart disease.{{cite book |title=Cincinnati: A Guide to the Queen City and Its Neighbors |author=Ohio Federal Writers' Project |year=1943 |isbn=978-1-60354-051-3 |publisher=Wisen-Hart Press|access-date=March 29, 2021|url={{Google books|id=g9vJrsMSnEQC |page=137 |keywords="following+ly-"+"ford's+death+in+1927" |plainurl=yes}}}}
During his tenure at the Cincinnati Opera Company Lyford also mentored John Jacob Niles. Niles said, "Ralph Lyford was a great conductor, teacher, humorist and accompanist. He helped me greatly with the problems I had in playing accompaniments."{{cite book |last= Pen|first= Ron |title=I Wonder as I Wander|publisher=University Press of Kentucky |year=2010 |isbn=978-0-8131-2597-8 |access-date=September 13, 2010|url=https://archive.org/details/iwonderasiwander00penr|url-access= registration|page= [https://archive.org/details/iwonderasiwander00penr/page/66 66]|quote= ralph lyford.}}
Music
Ralph Lyford wrote mainly orchestral music, including a piano concerto. He wrote the opera Castle Agrazant,{{cite book |last=Everest Freer |first=Eleanor |title=The Drama |article=Opera in the United States |url={{Google books |id=XsevMs8SIJUC |page=350 |keywords="david+bispham+memorial+fund"+"castle+agrazant+by+ralph+lyford" |plainurl=yes}} |access-date=March 29, 2021 |volume=12 |year=1922 |publisher=Dramatic Publishing Co. |pages=351}}{{cite web |title= Prize Opera is Given.; "Castle Agrazant" by Ralph Lyford Presented in Cincinnati.|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1926/04/30/archives/prize-opera-is-given-castle-agrazant-by-ralph-lyford-presented-in.html |access-date=April 11, 2009|date= April 30, 1926 |publisher= The New York Times.|location= New York}} which won a Bispham Memorial Medal Award in 1926.
Timeline
| class="wikitable" |
| 1882
| Born in Worcester, Massachusetts |
| 1894-1900
|Studies at the New England Conservatory of Music, graduates 1900 |
| 1907-1908
|assistant conductor of the San Carlo Opera Company |
| 1908-1914
| works as assistant conductor of the Opera Company of Boston |
| 1916
| Hired to organize the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music |
| 1916-1927
| works in Cincinnati at the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music |
| 1920
| Founded the Summer Opera Association, progenitor of the Cincinnati Opera |
| 1925
| Appointed associate conductor of the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music |
| 1926
| won a Bispham Memorial Medal Award for Castle Agrazant |
| 1927
| Died |
References
{{Archival records|title=Ralph Lyford collection, 1919-1940|location= Music Division, Library of Congress|description_URL=https://lccn.loc.gov/2016570594}}
{{reflist}}
Further reading
- {{cite book |last= Howard|first= John Tasker|title= Our American Music: Three Hundred Years of It|year= 1939|publisher= Thomas Y. Crowell Company|location= New York}}
- {{cite book|last=Osborne|first=William|title=Music in Ohio|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_x7_3e7H-xcC|year=2004|publisher=Kent State University Press|isbn=978-0-87338-775-0 }}
- {{cite web|url=http://lcweb2.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/h?pp/PPALL:@field(NUMBER+@1(ggbain+16072))|title = Photo of Ralph Lyford, Ass't Conductor, Boston Opera -- with Mrs. R. Lyford (Ella Gillis) of Ballet}}
- {{cite book |author=Music Educators National Conference (U.S.), JSTOR (Organization) |title= Music supervisors journal.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HS4n1iPrsX4C&q=%22ralph+lyford%22&pg=RA7-PA38 |access-date=March 7, 2020|year= 1922|publisher= Music Educators National Conference.}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lyford, Ralph}}
Category:Musicians from Worcester, Massachusetts
Category:Musicians from Cincinnati
Category:American opera composers
Category:American male opera composers
Category:New England Conservatory alumni
Category:American male conductors (music)
Category:Pupils of George Whitefield Chadwick
Category:New England Conservatory faculty
Category:20th-century American classical composers
Category:20th-century American conductors (music)
Category:Classical musicians from Massachusetts