Betsy Warren-Davis

1921 - 2018

Betsy Warren-Davis (Classical Composer B.Warren), 96, resident of Bath Maine and Cambridge, Massachusetts, passed away on March 3rd, peacefully at her sons home in Arrowsic surrounded by her family. Betsy was born in Boston in 1921, the only child of Paul Livingston Warren, an actor and Edith (Frost) Warren an opera singer. Before her birth, Betsys parents toured early 20th century America as the Vaudeville duo Warren and Frost. Composing under the name B. Warren she authored over 120 works of modern classical music including four operas, three symphonies, chamber works for strings, woodwinds, piano and organ, and numerous choral works drawing on her earlier career as a singer, choral director and teacher of music theory. She enjoyed a longstanding and successful artistic collaboration with the Boston poet and fellow Harvard alumnus David McCord including the operetta Gift of the Magi based on the O. Henry short story. Betsy was an active in the music community in Cambridge and Boston | A member of the Cambridge Music Club and the Harvard Musical Association. Performances of her works at the HMA most recently was a premiere of a Trio for Violin, Viola and Cello dedicated to and performed by the Albers sisters and a Saxophone Quartet performed by the Radnofsky Quartet, which was later released as a commercial recording. Her compositions were featured in a series of performances at the Boston Public Library, including a string quintet that was commissioned by the Library. Other commissions included the Appletree Madrigals written for Radcliffes 100 th anniversary and a processional for Radcliffes annual memorial service for alumnae. Carson Cooman, Composer in Residence, The Memorial Church at Harvard University said I have long enjoyed the music of Betsy Warren-Davis, and I was especially pleased when in 2008 she composed a new organ work for me. Warren-Daviss music fell strongly into an American (and even more specifically New England) tradition with its clear textures, concise formal designs, and unpretentious lyricism. To this was also added a dose of wit: you didnt always know exactly what might be coming next in one of her pieces, but it was always a delightful surprise. Until her last days, she regularly attended the Friday afternoon performances of the Boston Symphony Orchestra often following the scores by flashlight from her favorite perch in the first balcony directly above the stage. A lifelong follower of the Christian Science religion, Betsy dedicated many or her compositions to the Glory of God. As a child, Betsy was raised by her mother and grandfather, James Riggs Frost, a Bath native and pioneer in the Maine shoe industry. Her father tragically passed away when Betsy was very young. The family moved to Skowhegan, where she immersed herself in music and the arts at the town high school making arrangements for a contemporary singing trio that she led. Upon graduating in 1938, she joined the Lakewood Summer Theatre where she was cast in Good Morning with John Hammond Daly and also in Land of Honey with Warren Hymer and Keenan Wynn. Her early exposure to Broadway-bound shows performing in the golden age of summer stock was a profound influence that gave her a theatrical sensibility that she brought to her later performances and operatic compositions. Her mother taught her to sing and act but also recognized and encouraged Betsys early talent as a composer and arranger. Beginning in 1938 she began her undergraduate studies at the University of Maine to study Astronomy. In her Junior year, she transferred to Radcliffe College, again majoring in Astronomy, but soon realizing where her true talent was, switched disciplines and received a BA in Music in 1942. The following year she condensed a two-year masters degree into nine months graduating with an MA in music from Harvard in 1943. She studied choral composition with Archibald Davison, composition with her mentor Walter Piston, also with Aaron Copland, Bela Bartok, and from Nadia Boulanger at the Longy School of Music located nearby. In 1944 and 1945 she wrote music reviews at the Lowell Sunday Telegram and the Christian Science Monitor and was simultaneously Choral Director at the Cambridge YWCA. She went on to teach music theory and solfege at the New England Conservatory until 1951. Her first work, the Fairhaven Junior Choir book was published during this period. In 1947 she met and married Joseph Henry Davis Jr. in Cambridge, Massachusetts, a Navy veteran, graduate of the Harvard Business School and future entrepreneur in the electronics and real estate industries. They were happily married until he passed away in 1992. In 1951, she resumed her performance career in Boston and New York for the next 20 years singing and performing with various conductors including Boris Goldovsky at the New England Conservatory and Anthony Amato at the Amato Opera Company in New York. In 1967, she began a concert tour of Europe, performing in Amsterdam, Berlin, Zurich, and at Wigmore Hall in London. In 1975, together with her husband she formed the Wiscasset Music Publishing Company which continues to operate. She also developed a music listening course for schools with her friend and Radcliffe classmate Susan Godoy. Proud of her New England Heritage, she belonged to many historical associations including the Colonial Dames of America, The Society of the Descendants of the Colonial Clergy, The National Huguenot Society and the Daughters of the American Revolution. She leaves a son, James Frost Davis, a daughter, Catherine Eaton Davis, and three grandchildren, David, George and Josephine Massey. A memorial service will be held in Boston Massachusetts on Sunday June 10 th at 3pm in at the Class of 1959 Chapel at the Harvard Business School on Gordon Road, Boston, Massachusetts. For further details, contact wiscassetmusicpublishing@ yahoo.com. A series of memorial concerts featuring her compositions is being planned.