So began a long association with one of the finest musicians I had ever had the honor to work with. In 1981 Jeannette invited me to become her baritone soloist and paid quartet member at the First Baptist Church in Waterbury (her stint at Prospect Methodist was rather short . . . she was a First Baptist before she left due to a riff with the new minister at the church). First Baptist was the only church in Waterbury that had a paid quartet and I already new the soprano (Gertrude Raskaukas) and the alto (Catherine Frantzis) so I thought it could be fun. I didn't hesitate long to take Jeannette up on her offer. This would be a great chance to learn a repertoire which I was not very familiar with and at the same time have the opportunity to work with a phenomenal organist and pianist.
Jeannette could sight read anything and she made playing orchestral reductions appear easy (believe me they are NOT). Over the years we did countless weddings and recitals together and I loved every minute working with her. She knew what I was going to do (breathing, phrasing, etc.) even before I knew it. God, we had so much fun and laughed so much.
When she decided to retire after 40 odd years at First Baptist in 1989, I and two other members of the quartet (all of whom were not members of the church) decided to leave with her. It just wouldn't be the same and it was truly the end of an era. I sang my last recital with Jeannette in 1990. She was amazing as usual. I was okay.
Jeannette has been on my mind quite a bit these last couple of weeks. She lost her beloved husband of 67 years, Donald, on June 21st. She is now 90 years old and lives in an assisted living facility in Torrington. The "old Jeannette" comes and goes these days . . . I will visit her today with Heidi and intend to share some memories. I hope I can convey just important she has been to me . . . she's one of a kind.
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Had a wonderful visit . . . I'm so glad we went and I'm so glad I made her laugh.
Press photo for concert at First Baptist Church
Thank you note from Connie Small (the Browns' daughter)
Jeannette Benedict Brown
Pianist, organist, church choir director
Pianist, organist, church choir director
| Ellen Jeannette Benedict Brown |
PLYMOUTH — Ellen Jeannette Benedict Brown, 96, recently of Main Street, died Wednesday, Dec. 2, 2015, at Woodlake in Tolland with her granddaughter and daughter-in-law by her side. She is once again with her beloved husband, Donald, who died in 2010.
Jeannette was born in Thomaston on Sept. 15, 1919, to the late Harry L. and Ruth (Langdon) Benedict. She was a graduate of Thomaston High School and the Perry Secretarial School, and was a very accomplished pianist, organist and choir director. For 45 years, she was the director of both the senior and junior choirs at the First Baptist Church of Waterbury, where she organized and directed the youth and hand bell choirs. She served as organist and choir director of the Prospect United Methodist Church in Bristol and as associate in music at the Church of Christ in Newington. She also taught piano and organ to many children in Plymouth and the surrounding towns.
She was a two-term dean of the Waterbury Chapter of the American Guild of Organists and served four terms as state chairman of the Guild. She was accompanist for the Mendelssohn Male Chorus, director of the all-male Barnstormers and Liederkranz, accompanist for the Waterbury Oratorical Society, taught the McTernan Boys choral group and directed the Waterbury Hospital nurses choral group.
She is survived by a daughter, Connie J. Small of Florida; and three sons, David N. Brown and his wife, Mai, of California, Christopher D. Brown and his wife, Denise, of Stafford, and Peter L. Brown and his wife, Sherry, of New York; 11 grandchildren; several great-grandchildren; and many nieces and nephews. Jeannette was predeceased by a sister, Ruth Eggleston, and a brother, George Benedict.
Calling hours will be held from 10 a.m. to noon Saturday, Dec. 5, at the First Congregational Church of Plymouth, with a service to follow at noon. In honor of Jeannette's love of color, wearing bright colors is welcome. Burial will follow in West Cemetery in Plymouth.
In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the First Congregational Church, 10 Park St., Plymouth 06782.
In this morning's (12/13/15) HARTFORD COURANT:
Music, And Choral Groups, Were Her Life
Jeannette Brown's life revolved around music, helping to bring out the talent she believed every one of her chorus members and students possessed. From her childhood on, she excelled at the piano and the organ, and she directed choral groups for more than six decades, including the Waterbury Chorale.
Jeannette Benedict Brown, 96, died Dec. 2. She was a long time resident of Plymouth.
She was born on Sept. 15, 1919, and when she was 16 and had studied the piano for just a year, the Thomaston Congregational Church asked her to be its organist. Her mother, Ruth Benedict, was a pianist, and from her, Brown had inherited a love of music. Her father, Harry Benedict, had died while she was young, and there was no money for further music lessons. Brown's mother took in boarders and sewed ties to support the family. Ruth eventually became the office manager for an insurance agency, and the family's finances improved.
After Jeannette graduated from Thomaston High School in 1937, she attended the Perry School of Business in Waterbury, where she and a good friend shared the top grades in typing and shorthand; Brown could type 160 words per minute. She obtained a job with the state Department of Taxation, now the Department of Revenue Services, and worked there for many years.
Her musical education continued through a fortuitous meeting with a generous music lover. One day, when she was 19 and practicing the organ, Jeannette sensed a presence in the church and realized someone was listening to her play. The woman asked if she was taking music lessons, and Jeannette told her that she could not afford them. "I'd like to sponsor you," replied the woman, who subsequently paid for a year of lessons for Jeannette. It turned out that the benefactor went to churches and other venues to search out promising young musicians and sponsor them.
Jeannette took the lessons, and benefited from the fact that she was born left handed. At that time, left-handed children were taught to write and eat with their right hands, so she developed equal dexterity in both hands — an advantage in both music and typing.
In 1943, she married Donald Brown, a salesman with Chase Brass and Copper in Waterbury. They knew each other well: they had been in the same classes since second grade, and started dating in high school. Brown was also a strong tenor who sang in his wife's choirs until his death in 2010.
In addition to raising their four children, Jeannette Brown gave piano and organ lessons, and her son, Chris, remembers many days when he had to be silent as his mother gave lessons in their house. Jeanette also performed in concerts with her mother — four hand piano renditions featuring composers from Poulenc and Stravinsky to Cole Porter.
In 1967, Jeannette Brown joined the Waterbury Oratorio Society as an accompanist. It soon changed its name to the Waterbury Chorale to reflect the fact that, in addition to works like "Messiah" and "Elijah" by Handel, it could perform other music. "As time went on, the audience changed," said Bunny Wynn, a longtime member of the group.
There are now about 90 singers in the group. Unlike some accompanists, Brown played at both concerts and rehearsals, and went with the Chorale on trips to New York, Washington, D.C., and St. Thomas in the Virgin Islands.
Brown helped expand the repertoire of the Chorale, introducing Elvis Presley as well as Pachelbel. One concert portrayed the history of the U.S. through music, from "Chester," by William Billings, an 18th century choral composer, to Civil War songs, and the contemporary "We Shall Overcome."
"She was just a phenomenon, "said Peg Sullivan, a member of the Chorale. "She wasn't just pounding out notes. She was very connected to the conductor's needs." Brown also knew when to speed up or slow down the tempo to match the pace of the singers, and how to blend their needs with the conductor's baton.
"She could make light of some situation that was possibly a little testy," said Sullivan. "She was not a placater — someone who wants everyone to love each other and get along. She was a peacemaker who liked to get in the middle of the battle and try to make peace."
"A lot of directors don't have the agility to do the voice thing. It's not like other instruments," Wynn said. "She was very good with directing singers."
"She was a joy and more fun," Wynn said. "If something went wrong, there was no screaming or yelling. It was, 'that was funny.'"
To break tension when it arose among the singers, Brown would play a few bars of a show tune or something from the American Songbook, like "Tea for Two."
Wynn was featured as soloist occasionally and would ask Brown to play for her when Wynn rehearsed. "She would play as long as I could sing. She'd make it sheer fun."
Brown made a point of helping singers experience the emotions behind the notes, and show them how they could change the way they sang and put more expression into the song. "She would give you an idea of what the heartfelt idea was, and how to sing through a line or music, and phrase and color it with the tone of your voice," Wynn said.
Brown was also the music director of the choir of the First Baptist Church in Waterbury for 45 years. After she retired, she was named Minister of Music Emerita. The volunteer choir members were helped by four paid soloists who helped her expand the group's repertoire.
Eunice Johnston joined the church choir when she was 10 years old. "I learned from her," said Johnston, who grew up to conduct her own church choir. "I learned her way of doing things, and how to direct."
Brown worked with other singing groups, like the Barnstormers, a men's group, and the Liederkrantz, a group that sang German songs. She also substituted for many church music directors around the Waterbury area over the years, and in the summers she played at the Plymouth Congregational Church, just a few blocks from her house.
Brown's sense of humor sustained her through challenges both large and small. When a pressure cooker full of beets exploded in her kitchen, she couldn't get the pink stain off the ceiling — so she painted the whole ceiling pink. Like her mother, she liked to sew, and she made many of her own clothes. She made a long tunic, slit on both sides, and she liked to flip the ends up when she sat down on the piano bench at the beginning of a performance the same way male players flipped up the ends of their tail coats.
Brown is survived by her daughter, Connie Small, three sons, David, Chris and Peter Brown, along with 11 grandchildren and 11 great grandchildren.
Brown's good humor and her relaxed, though highly committed approach to music, struck others as meditative. "She saw peace in everything," said Sullivan,
Copyright © 2015, Hartford Courant
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