 |
| From a page in Marilla MacDill's scrapbooks |
MacDill’s scrapbooks were gifted to the Community Music Center by her daughter, Katherine Barrows, who also served as a school board member. In fact, four generations of Marilla MacDill’s family served on the school board, including her mother and her nephew. MacDill’s impact on the CMCB lives on, as the CMCB awards the Marilla MacDill Award to faculty members who exhibit excellence in their teaching. The CMCB’s website describes MacDill as “a talented pianist and a patron of American music,” and “an unwavering advocate of music education for underrepresented populations.”
Each page in the scrapbooks is intriguing, but there are some which stand out amongst the rest. One of the most compelling figures I stumbled upon was Carmela Ippolito. The first clipping of Ippolito is shown here; the rest of the writeup reads,
Carmela Ippolito was born in Boston in 1902 to Vincenza Fiandaca and Pasquale Ippolito. Early clippings describe her as a North End girl; later clippings from when she was around 20 years old reference her living in East Boston with her family. It was difficult for me not to go down an extensive rabbit hole searching for more information about Ippolito, as there were a rather large number of news stories reported on her remarkable talents. Ippolito played a mandolin solo in Tremont Temple when she was four years old “for the benefit of Sicilian earthquake sufferers.” She was accompanied by the Boston Symphony Orchestra as a violin soloist at age 20. She studied at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia under Efrem Zimbalist, a Russian and American concert violinist, composer, and conductor who by age 21 was considered one of the world’s greatest violinists. Ippolito was based in New York City for at least part of the 1930s-40s, playing regularly at concert halls and booking recital tours.
While much was written about Ippolito in her early years, information about her later life seems to be scarcer. One of the bittersweet things about working in libraries and archives is how invested I tend to become in these individuals and their stories, often with many unanswered questions. Maybe someone reading this will decide to search for more about her and have better luck; in the meantime, you can read more about this remarkable collection in its finding aid linked here in our digital repository.
Alyssa Persson
 |
Carmela Ippolito, Boston’s Prodigious Violinist |
Ten pupils, ranging in age from ten years to nineteen, assisted by School Settlement Orchestra, furnished an excellent program. Millie Ippolito and Etta Wein, who are but ten years old, rendered violin solos. Those who heard the little musicians play declared their work really remarkable. At a previous concert Millie won great favor when she played a minuet by Boccherini. Last night she rendered the Handel Sonata in A Major, which has been found complicated by advanced students. Millie said to an American reporter, “When I was five years old my brother Salvatore, who plays a cello, would set with me nights and teach me the notes. When I was nearly six years old I took my first music lesson. In October 1911, I entered the Boston Music School Settlement, and since have taken part in the plays and concerts that have been presented by the settlement. I just love to practice, and when each session of school is over I go right home for my violin and then back to the music school. Instead of finding it hard, I find a great deal of pleasure in it.
Alyssa Persson
Processing Archivist
