Ruth Stuber Jeanne (''

née The birth name is the name of the person given upon their birth. The term may be applied to the surname, the given name or to the entire name. Where births are required to be officially registered, the entire name entered onto a births registe ...

'' Stuber; b. 13 May 1910,

Chicago Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...

; d. 6 Apr. 2004,

Newark, Ohio Newark ( ) is a city in Licking County, Ohio, United States, and its county seat. It is located east of Columbus, Ohio, Columbus at the junction of the forks of the Licking River (Ohio), Licking River. The population was 49,934 at the 2020 United ...

) was an American marimbist,

percussionist A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a beater including attached or enclosed beaters or rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or struck against another similar instrument. Ex ...

violin The violin, sometimes referred to as a fiddle, is a wooden chordophone, and is the smallest, and thus highest-pitched instrument (soprano) in regular use in the violin family. Smaller violin-type instruments exist, including the violino picc ...

ist, and

arranger In music, an arrangement is a musical adaptation of an existing composition. Differences from the original composition may include reharmonization, melodic paraphrasing, orchestration, or formal development. Arranging differs from orchestrat ...

. On April 29, 1940, at Carnegie Hall, she and

Orchestrette Classique Orchestrette Classique, later called Orchestrette of New York (1932–1943) was an American chamber orchestra in New York made up of women musicians. It was founded in 1932 by conductor Frédérique Petrides (1903–1983), who served as conducto ...

, an all female orchestra, premiered the ''Concertino for Marimba and Orchestra'' by American composer

Paul Creston Paul Creston (born Giuseppe Guttoveggio; October 10, 1906 – August 24, 1985) was an American composer of classical music. He composed six symphonies and several concertante works for violin, piano, accordion, marimba and saxophone. Biography B ...

, who was present. Creston wrote Concertino for Stuber and dedicated it to the orchestra's director,

Frédérique Petrides Frédérique Petrides (pronounced peh TREE dis), (September 26, 1903 – January 12, 1983), was a Belgians, Belgian-United States, American conductor and violinist. In 1933, she founded and conducted the Orchestrette Classique in New York City, N ...

(pronounced ''pe TREE dis''), who asked Creston to compose it. The 1940 program note stated that ''Concertino'' was then "the only work ever written for this instrument in serious form." Jeanne was a tympanist with

Training

Her father, Benjamin F. Stuber, taught strings in the Evanston (IL) public schools. Her early training was as violinist, and she played violin in the Evanston Symphony in high school and while studying at Northwestern University's School of Music in the early 1930s, being elected chair of the music students' social committee in fall 1931. In 1933, while living in Chicago, Stuber acquired her first marimba, and, in her words, "just took off!"

Clair Omar Musser Clair Omar Musser (1901–1998) was a marimba virtuoso, a conductor and promoter of marimba orchestras, a composer, a teacher, a designer of keyboard percussion instruments, an inventor, and an engineer for Hughes Aircraft. Early career Musser ...

(1901–98) was her first marimba teacher. She played in Musser’s 100-piece Marimba Orchestra for the 1933 World’s Fair in Chicago. By fall 1933 she lived in Florence, Alabama, where her father opened his Stuber School of Music. She was then performing widely around the region on both marimba and violin. Also, in Florence, she taught marimba and founded a marimba ensemble that performed both for live audiences and on WNRA radio. She taught music in Alabama's public schools, and also at the Women's College of Alabama in Montgomery, renamed Huntington College in 1935. In 1936, Stuber moved to

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

where she studied marimba with

George Hamilton Green George Hamilton Green Jr. (May 23, 1893 – September 11, 1970) was a Xylophone, xylophonist, composer, and cartoonist born in Omaha, Nebraska. He was born into a musical family, both his grandfather and his father being composers, arrangers, and ...

and timpani with George Braun, who would serve as percussionist (tympanist) with the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra from 1920 to 1954. Beginning in 1937, she taught band and orchestra in the Carle Place schools of Nassau County, NY."Named to Faculty." Nassau Daily Review-Star, 10 September 1937.

Family

In 1941, Ruth Stuber married Armand L. Jeanne (b. 14 June 1911, Cornol, Switzerland; d. 16 Sept. 16, 1968). Ruth and Armand had two sons. Both Ruth and Armand are buried at Maple Grove Cemetery,

Granville, Ohio Granville is a Village (United States)#Ohio, village in Licking County, Ohio, United States. The population was 5,946 at the United States Census 2020, 2020 census. The village is located in a rural area of hills, known locally as the Welsh Hills ...

References

External links

Image of Ruth Stuber: LaBudde Special Collections Dept. , Paul Creston Collection: Photographs, University of Missouri, Kansas City

Image of Creston Concertino manuscript
Percussive Notes (magazine), PAS * Obituaries : ''Jeanne'',

The Columbus Dispatch ''The Columbus Dispatch'' is a daily newspaper based in Columbus, Ohio. Its first issue was published on July 1, 1871, and it has been the only mainstream daily newspaper in the city since ''The Columbus Citizen-Journal'' ceased publication in ...

, April 21, 2004 : ''Jeanne'',

The Advocate An advocate is a professional in the field of law. The Advocate, The Advocates or Advocate may also refer to: Magazines * The Advocate (magazine), ''The Advocate'' (magazine), an LGBT magazine based in the United States * ''The Harvard Advocate' ...

(

), April 10, 2004 : James Loyal Moore, PhD (Associate Professor of Music Emeritus at

Ohio State University The Ohio State University (Ohio State or OSU) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Columbus, Ohio, United States. A member of the University System of Ohio, it was founded in 1870. It is one ...

), ''Obituary: Ruth Stuber Jeanne,'' Percussive Notes (magazine), PAS (date of publication unknown) : ''Ruth Stuber Jeanne'', The Times-Recorder (

Zanesville, Ohio Zanesville is a city in Muskingum County, Ohio, United States, and its county seat. Located at the confluence of the Licking River (Ohio), Licking and Muskingum River, Muskingum rivers, the city is approximately east of Columbus, Ohio, Columb ...

) April 11, 2004 {{DEFAULTSORT:Jeanne, Ruth Stuber Northwestern University alumni Bienen School of Music alumni American percussionists American music educators American women music educators Musicians from Ohio 1910 births 2004 deaths People from Newark, Ohio American marimbists Women marimbists 20th-century American musicians Educators from Ohio 20th-century American women musicians 21st-century American women American timpanists