Scripps College will present its highest honor given to an alumna, the Distinguished Alumna Award, to Marsha Genensky on Saturday, April 24, at 11:00 a.m., in Balch Auditorium, during the college’s Reunion Weekend.
Genensky is a founding member of the medieval vocal quartet, Anonymous 4. The quartet, which takes its name from a famous set of historic writings by an anonymous 12th century Englishman, is internationally renowned for its superb vocal blend and technical virtuosity. Its albums consistently top Billboard’s classical charts, making Anonymous 4 a standout among early-music vocal groups.
After earning an undergraduate degree from Scripps in 1980 in music and folklore, Genensky was awarded an Annenburg Fellowship for graduate studies in folklore and folk life at the University of Pennsylvania, where she received her M.A. in 1984. She says of her time in Philadelphia, “I became interested in the performance not only of shape note music, but of medieval, renaissance, and baroque music as well.”
Genensky moved to New York in 1985 to study with Marcy Lindheimer and sing “early music.” For several years she was a free-lance singer for established groups such as Pomerium Musices, the Folger Consort, and the Baltimore Consort. In early 1986, she helped found Anonymous 4. “The members of the group quickly fell in love with the idea of working as a consensus organization (without a director),” says Genensky. “We also committed ourselves from the beginning to create programs centering on themes and combining sung text with spoken text.”
According to Genensky, the group trudged along with great love and commitment (and suffering) for a number of years, only achieving “overnight success” six months after the release of their first recording in fall 1992. Anonymous 4’s first recording for Harmonia Mundi USA, “An English Ladymass,” sold more than 150,000 copies worldwide and was named Classical Disc of the Year for 1993 by CD Review. Genensky is quick to point out that overnight success in classical music is not the same as it is in the pop world. “It was not until June 1994 that we were able to leave our other means of employment.”
Genensky says she never loses sight of the fact that the ensemble allows her to do several things that have always been important to her: combine literary/cultural/historical research with performance; have equal partnership in a creative process and its product; and enjoy the “musically and socially transcendent experience” of performing with other people.
The Scripps College Distinguished Alumnae Award, presented first in 1978, was established to celebrate the notable achievements of Scripps alumnae and to focus attention on Scripps’ role in the education of women. Recent past recipients include: Ruth Ashton Taylor ’43, television and radio journalist; Suzanne Ely Muchnic ’62, art critic and reporter for the Los Angeles Times; Ruth Markowitz Owades ’66, founder and CEO of Calyx & Carolla; Barbara R. Arnwine ’73, civil rights attorney and activist; Susan Fallows Tierney ’73, economic and public policy analyst; Nancy Cook Aldrich ’84, physicist and engineer; and Elizabeth Arnold Stone ’71, veterinarian.