Thelma Given

Thelma Mary Given was born in Columbus, Ohio, and raised in Decatur, Illinois,^[1] the daughter of James Frederick Given and Emma Jones Given.^[2][3] Her musical abilities were recognized by age 5.^[4] She studied with Leopold Auer in Russia.^[5] She toured Europe with Auer as a teenager, and was caught in the tumult of war and the Russian Revolution for almost a year^[6] before she and her mother were able to return to the United States.^[7]

Given made her American debut at Carnegie Hall in 1918.^[8] She returned to the Carnegie Hall stage several times.^[9][10] She toured in the United States and Europe^[11] in the 1920s and 1930s, given recitals and as guest soloist with orchestras.^[12][13] She played a Guarneri violin made in 1738.^[14]

Given lived much of her adult life living with her mother and brother Eben Given (a painter), at Saranac Lake,^[15] and in the arts colony at Provincetown, Massachusetts,^[16] in social circles that included playwright Eugene O'Neill.^[17] She married in 1943, as the third wife of Minturn de Suzzara Verdi, a New York lawyer.^[18]

Thelma Given Verdi was widowed in 1970,^[19] and she died on Christmas Day, 1977, aged 81 years, in Boston, Massachusetts, after a stroke.^[5] Papers associated with Thelma Given, including concert programs, letters, and a clippings album of reviews, are archived by the Provincetown History Preservation Project.^[20]