Birth name Ruth Stuber Instruments percussion, violin | Name Ruth Jeanne Genres Classical music | |
Born May 13, 1910 ( 1910-05-13 ) Occupation(s) Percussionist, violinist, arranger, educator Died April 6, 2004, Newark, Ohio, United States | ||
Ruth Stuber Jeanne (née Stuber; b. 13 May 1910, Chicago; d. 6 Apr. 2004, Newark, Ohio) was an American marimbist, percussionist, violinist, and arranger. On April 29, 1940, she and Orchestrette Classique, an all female orchestra, premiered the Concertino for Marimba and Orchestra by American composer Paul Creston. The performance was at Carnegie Hall. Creston wrote Concertino for Stuber and dedicated it to the orchestra's director, Frédérique Petrides (pronounced pe TREE dis), who asked Creston to compose it. Creston was in the Audience. The 1940 program notes stated that Concertino was "the only work ever written for this instrument in serious form." Jeanne was a tympanist with Orchestrette Classique.
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Training
In 1933, while living in Chicago, Stuber acquired her first marimba, and, in her words, "just took off!" Clair Omar Musser (1901–1998) was her first marimba teacher. She played in Musser’s 100-piece Marimba Orchestra for the 1933 World’s Fair in Chicago. Then in 1936, Stuber moved to New York City where she studied marimba with George Hamilton Green and timpani with George Braun, who had been a percussionist (tympanist) with the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra from 1920 to 1954.
Family
In 1941, Ruth Stuber married Armand L. Jeanne (b. 14 June 1911, Cornol, Switzerland; d. 16 Sept. 16, 1968). Ruth and Armand had two sons:
- Robert Lawrence Jeanne, PhD (born 1942) (married Louise)
- Richard Armand Jeanne (born 1944) (married LaVerne in 1971)
Both Ruth and Armand are buried at Maple Grove Cemetery, Granville, Ohio.