CCM Library the Recipient of the Papers of Genevieve White McGiffert

Genevieve White McGiffert, 1960

The College-Conservatory of Music (CCM) Library was honored recently to receive a wonderful collection of archival material of Cincinnati Conservatory of Music graduate Genevieve White McGiffert. The collection, donated by her husband, Michael McGiffert, of Williamsburg, Virginia, focuses on Genevieve’s time at the Conservatory.

Genevieve White was born in 1926 in Procious, West Virginia, the daughter of teachers who taught in rural, one-room schools. Growing up during the Depression, she was fortunate to be taught by a local music teacher, Lucy Jackson, who had a diploma from the Juilliard Institute of Music (now the Juilliard School of Music). With the support of Jackson and her parents, Genevieve moved to Cincinnati at age 16 to attend the Conservatory, having graduated at the top of her class from Clay County High School.

Genevieve received a Bachelor’s of Music degree in voice and piano in 1946 from the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music and in 1949 received her Master’s of Music degree in voice. After moving to Hamilton, New York, with her first husband, she taught in the local public schools and earned her Master’s of Arts degree in education from Syracuse University in 1956. She later moved to Denver, Colorado, with her second husband, Michael McGiffert.

Genevieve earned her Ph.D. in theater from the University of Denver. There, she chaired the opera and voice departments and conducted full productions and workshop performances of 25 operas and musicals. For eight summers she directed the apprentice program of the Central City Opera, and in the 1970s founded and led the Colorado Opera Theater, bringing one-act operas to young audiences throughout the state.

In 1973 she and her husband moved to Williamsburg, Virginia, where she became very active in the musical scene working with the Virginia Opera as well as teaching voice privately, producing and performing at Young Audiences programs, and serving on the faculties of Christopher Newport College and Old Dominion University. Genevieve also served on the Virginia Commission on Arts and Humanities and the Virginia branch of the National Association of Teachers of Singing. During the 1990s she was Director of the Williamsburg Choral Guild, a group of 100 singers. In 2002 she founded Art Song of Williamsburg, serving as its Artistic Director and presenting three concerts a season by outstanding young American and foreign singers.

Genevieve White McGiffert died March 15, 2007, in Williamsburg. Her papers include three large scrapbooks of programs and press clippings and many photographs of her and her classmates at the Conservatory. Documentary material from the early years of the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music before its merge with the College of Music of Cincinnati is rare, so we are particularly grateful for this gift that will be a major benefit to researchers for many years to come.

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