Entering the Wilderness

FANNY – THE MUSICAL Susan Jane Matthews, Director of Music

This Lent, the Choir School has begun a journey to write and perform a musical

about the German Romantic composer and pianist Fanny Hensel (1805-1847). Until

the past few decades, Fanny Hensel’s compositions have remained in the shadow of

her younger brother, Felix Mendelssohn. When Fanny suddenly died of a stroke at the

age of 41, she had only been publishing her music under her own name for a year,

though she composed over 450 works. She was a virtuoso pianist, but she did not

perform publicly. Her music was heard by the guests at the Sunday concerts

(Sonntagsmusiken) that she hosted at her Berlin home.

The Choir School gathered at the home of two Choristers, Anna and Alice Malhotra,

to begin research for the musical by watching a 2023 film documentary directed by

Fanny’s great-great-great granddaughter, Sheila Hayman: Fanny, The Other Mendelssohn.

The film both tells of Fanny’s life as a musician and traces recent sleuthing which brought her gorgeous Ostersonate (Easter Sonata) for piano to light in 2010. Choristers insightfully responded to 36 questions as they viewed the film, which includes a

recording of St. Paul’s organ in the wedding scene. They began to consider broader lessons that might be drawn from Fanny’s life on vocation, the work to which a person is called by God.

In coming weeks during their Wednesday rehearsal time, guided by poet and writing coach Mia Malhotra, the Choir School will draft a script and take on roles in the musical. They will be learning music Fanny highlighted in her Sunday concerts by Bach, Beethoven, Gounod, Felix Mendelssohn, and Fanny Hensel herself, and will consider how Fanny has opened the door to women musicians beyond her time. For those attending the parish retreat at the Bishop’s Ranch, I will offer a sneak preview concert of the Easter Sonata on Saturday afternoon, along with the first four movements (months) of her Das Jahr to which the sonata is linked.

Make sure to save the date of 4pm Sunday, May 18 for the Choir School’s production

of Fanny-The Musical!