T. Harry Williams Center for Oral History Collection

ABSTRACT

INTERVIEWEE NAME: Paul Young, Fay Conn,

Ann Walsh, Roberta French,

Aricka Hornsee, Olga Hill,

Everett Timm, Sylvia Wise,

Edgar Rochelle, Genieve Collins,

Gladys Funchess, Ora Young

COLLECTION: 4700.0067

IDENTIFICATION: Interviewees include Young and several Music School students and faculty from the 1920s and 1930s.

INTERVIEWER: Jack Fiser

PROJECT: LSU History

DATE: 1983

FOCUS DATES: 1920s - 1930s

ABSTRACT:

Huey Long's influence on Music School; piano teacher Eugenie Wehrmann-Schafnner; voice teacher Daisy Carlisle Raymond; teacher Pearl Willis; composition and theory teacher Helen Gunderson; Gunderson's forced retirement; Paul English and his traveling operettas; Prof. Stopher; required courses for music students; December 1930 performance of the Messiah; discuss performance for the Leesville Rotary Club; opera program director Dalton Raymond; ensemble class; participation required of all students and faculty; hiring Pasquale Amato; high caliber of the Music School's faculty; Amato's perfectionism; creation of the Baton Rouge Opera Association; grandeur of opening night; Stopher going into debt to stage operas; Lily Pons performing in Baton Rouge; Huey Long and the LSU Band; LSU's alma mater; the LSU Band and the Music School as separate entities and uniting the two in the 1940s; Huey Long's support of LSU musicians; Band Director Pop Gilbeau; discuss the succession of band directors; School of Music as part of the Teacher's College; violinist Sherrod Towns; briefly discuss various members of Music School faculty; violin teacher Ora Mae Ballanger [?] Welch being hired by Stopher; students' love of Welch; founding of Sigma Alpha Iota at LSU

TAPE: T 75

TOTAL PLAYING TIME: 1.5 hours

PAGES TRANSCRIPT: 58

RESTRICTIONS: Copyright retained by interviewees and/or their heirs.

NOTES: Since this is a group interview, many of the speakers on the tape could not be identified by the transcriber. The unidentified speakers are listed as "Woman [?]" and "Man [?]". 
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