Edna Gansel
American violinist
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Frances Edna Gansel Dundon (April 11, 1899 – May 2, 1983) was an American violinist, music educator, composer, and writer, based in southern California.
April 11, 1899
Edna Gansel | |
|---|---|
 Edna Gansel, from a 1921 publication | |
| Born | Frances Edna Gansel April 11, 1899 Chicago, Illinois, U.S. |
| Died | May 2, 1983 (age 84) California, U.S. |
| Other names | Edna Gansel Dundon |
| Occupation | Violinist |
Early life and education
Career
Gansel was an associate member of the University of Chicago Orchestra in 1915.[3] She and her sister, pianist Laura Gansel,[4] played music for guests at Chicago's La Salle Hotel for six years in the 1910s.[2][5] During a recital at Kimball Hall in 1921, she displayed "charming stage presence and manner" and "remarkably fine technical equipment".[6] She assisted music educator Gustav Berndt at the North Shore Conservatory.[7] In 1925, Gansel opened a violin studio in Pasadena,[2] and she taught at the Pasadena Conservatory of Music and Arts in 1928.[8] Her New York debut was in 1930.[9] She was sometimes an accompanist.[10][11]
In 1934, Gansel and Alfred Grosjean received a patent for a "modernistic violin".[12] In 1954, Gansel gave an interview to the Pasadena Independent about the "demise of violin" and her campaign to revive violin education for children. "I'd like to have a great violin choir in Pasadena," she told the reporter.[13]
Works
- "Ave Maria of Peace" (1937, composition)[14]
- The Echo of the Soul: The Story of the Violin (1937, a musical drama)[15]
- Composite study for double stopping in eight positions for violin (1940)[16]
- "Let My Dreams Come True" (1944, song, words by Joe Bonner)[17]
- "My Heavenly Queen" (1944, song, words by Joe Bonner)[17]
- "More Than You'll Ever, Ever Know" (1945, song, words by Joe Bonner)[17]
Personal life
Gansel married fellow entertainer Francis Augustine Dundon in 1925.[18] They lived in Altadena, California, and had five children born between 1926 and 1942. One son died in infancy. Her youngest son Timothy survived a stabbing attack in 1959,[19] and was a controversial figure known as "Zeke the Sheik" in their Altadena neighborhood for many years afterward.[20] Her only daughter, Edna, died in 1979. Gansel's husband, who became an aerospace executive,[20] died in 1981, and she died in 1983, at the age of 84, in California.