Ellenor Cook

              ELLENOR COOK
Folk Songs from Colorful Lands
In Costume

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Ellenor Cook

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THERE is a decided something about Ellenor Cook's programs that charms.  From the very instant she steps upon the stage until she makes her last bow, she fascinates.  Is it because the conception of her recital is unique, or because she brings a freshness to the concert field that is in itself lovely?  Is it the beauty of her costumes, dazzling bright with the bold, mad colors of Eastern Europe, the quaintness of the setting before which she appears, a black back-drop through which runs a brilliant pattern of Czecho-Slovakian design, or is it the haunting melodies which she sings and plays?  These folk songs come from lands where joy and sorrow, love and intense national feeling have inspired music that has soul, that possesses, that captivates.  Whatever it is, it exists.  For wherever Ellenor Cook goes, she triumphs.

Few artists in recent years have won such instant and universal success as Ellenor Cook with her Folk Song Recitals in Costume.  Miss Cook is a society girl, a graduate of Miss Porter's School in Farmington, and a member of the Junior League.  She possesses a soprano voice of lyric quality that is well suited to the type of work she is doing.  She is also a gifted pianiste and dancer.  All of these gifts she combines in her novel programs.  She has specialized in the music of the lands of Eastern Europe—Russia, the Ukraine, Poland, Czecho-Slovakia, Hungary, the Balkans.  She appears in the most exquisite costumes, all authentic, many made in the countries whose music she is presenting.  Her accompanist, Miss Eugenia Folliard, is in costume, too, thereby completing the picture.  Picture?  No, illusion.  The artists alternate, for when one is portraying a girl, the other is a winsome boy, and when Miss Cook appears in the boy's role, the accompanist is his girl partner.

The songs, most of them hardly known in America, are all sung in the native language, Miss Cook explaining as she goes on the theme of the song, the reason for its having been written.  She knows well the atmosphere surrounding the music, for she has gathered much of it in the countries themselves, and during the summer of 1926 again is spending many months in these lands of the music's origin.  Once more she wanders through the small Balkan towns, the villages of Poland and Hungary, Czecho-Slovakia, Roumania and Jugoslavia, in the quest of color, costumes, new folk airs.  Her programs in 1926–27 will be more complete, more representative than ever before.

In the never ending search for novelties, Miss Cook brings to the concert and entertainment field something that satisfies.  She has appeared before audiences of every type from the northeast corner of New England to the Middle West, from the summer resorts of fashion in the North to the winter playgrounds in the South.  Never has she failed to charm, for her whole entertainment is the essence of charm.  She is recommended to every organization that is looking for the unusual, for the new, for the genuine in art.

Miss Cook brings with her, her own back-drop and lighting equipment.




Letters of Appreciation
Century Theatre Club, New York City.

I am delighted to let you know how very popular Miss Ellenor Cook at once became with our Century Theatre Club on our Social Day.  She was charming in herself and more and more so in each group she sang.  Her idea of Folk Songs is unique; her acting is most impressive and real, and she was so good to look at.  In the last group of Russian songs in which she wore the Russian bridal costume, she was beautiful.  It was said it was the most perfect social day our Club has ever had.—Mrs. G. Reginald Crossley, Director of Study.

Middlesex Women's Club, Lowell, Mass.

Miss Cook's charm and versatility enhances a program of rare novelty and merit.  Her fine interpretation of the folk songs of foreign countries, of their dances and instrumental compositions for the piano was a thing both illuminating and fascinating.  The costumes were exquisite, and the lighting effective.  Her program before our club won instant approval.—Mrs. Joseph Barber, President.

The Musical Club, Hartford, Conn.

Miss Ellenor Cook's recital was a delight.  She showed astonishing versatility, and gave us an evening of vivid color and picturesque interest.  She has great personal charm, fine musical taste and intelligence, and enters into her performance with an exuberant joy which is very contagious.—Gertrude Damon Fothergill, President.

New Bedford Woman's Club, New Bedford, Mass.

Miss Ellenor Cook, in her programme of folk songs and dances, gave one of the finest evenings in our club year.  Her costumes, her stage setting, her accompanist—all were perfect.  Her voice sweet, full and beautiful, and her descriptions before each group of songs all made for an evening of real pleasure.  She had a most enthusiastic and appreciative audience, who would gladly welcome an opportunity to hear her again.—Mary McK. Potter, President.

David Mannes Music School, New York City.

Miss Cook's recitals of folk songs in costume are a delight to the eye and to the ear, and are wonderfully faithful interpretations of the spirit of their respective countries.—Clara Damrosch Mannes.

Miss Porter's School, Farmington, Conn.

Miss Cook has been at Miss Porter's School more than once, and her welcome here is assured.  Both artistically and musically her work is delightful, and the evenings she has spent with us are among our pleasantest memories.—Mr. and Mrs. Robert Porter Keep.

Buffalo Society of Natural Sciences, Buffalo, N. Y.

It gives me great pleasure to tell you that the entertainment furnished last evening by Miss Ellenor Cook and her able assistant proved to be one of the most delightful evenings of the winter.  Miss Cook's beautiful voice delighted one of our large audiences with her rendering of the Near Eastern folk songs and her attractive personality and skill charmed those who saw her in the folk dances of Eastern Europe.  The entire program was unusually delightful and entertaining, and you would certainly do well in furthering Miss Cook with any assistance in securing engagements that your Bureau can give.  You will make no mistake.—Henry R. Howland, Director.

Connecticut College for Women, New London, Conn.

We have only the happiest recollections of your delightful programme of songs and dances, interpolated with the most fascinating and beautifully phrased comments upon the music and dances which followed.  I think we have rarely had a programme which was at once so artistic and satisfactory.  Voice, action, color, posture, and movement—not forgetting the accompanist—were all that could be desired.  I have only cordial recommendation for your programme, and wish you every success.—Benjamin T. Marshall, President.



Specimen Programme


1.
Folk Songs from Poland and Czechoslovakia






The little quail





Petticoat song





Cavalry song





The little rabbit





The cowherd





Bagpipes





He's driving, he's driving




Duet—Slavic Dance

Dvorak



Dance Song

Tripping Maidens


2.
Folk Songs of an Ukrainian Boy






Rise, gretchaniki, rise





Volga boat song





The rich merchant





The last five rubles



3.
Piano Solos from Russia






Etude in F sharp
Arensky




Meditation
Tchaikowsky




Hopak
Moussorgsky



Folk Songs of a Russian girl






The red sarafan





Cossack lullaby





The lovely maiden





Troika




Dance

A measure from Russia






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Extracts from Press Reviews

MONTREAL DAILY STAR
—Miss Cook's songs have the advantage that they are the real things, brought by herself from the original sources.  They are not only a delight in themselves, but teach as much about the people who made them as any dry lecture on ethnology.  Further, Miss Cook is a remarkably good pianist.—(H. P. B.)


BOSTON (Mass.) HERALD
—Received enthusiastic response.  Her program was arranged by countries, and for each she wore the national costume of the land, bits of whose life, love, and sorrow she brought to a Boston audience.


PHILADELPHIA (Pa.) LEDGER
—Miss Cook created a most favorable impression at the New Century Club yesterday, not only for her charming personality, but for her unique manner of presenting some of the most unusual and melodious songs gathered from various musical sources.


SCRANTON (Pa.) REPUBLICAN
—With a voice of such merit it was unusual to find the artist also possessed of great talent as a pianist.  … In the costume of the daughter of a landholding Russian she presented one of the loveliest pictures that has ever graced the Century Club stage.


PITTSBURGH (Pa.) CHRONICLE TELEGRAPH
—The artist's song groups were interspersed with folk dances done with the required verve and dash and a certain charm that marked all her work.


SEWICKLEY HERALD
—Her whole nicely varied program was given with a certain child-like simplicity that added much to the charm of it all.  She literally lived in the strange lands and languages which she has so thoroughly made her own, and dazzled all eyes by her brilliantly colored costumes.


NEW BEDFORD (Mass.) MERCURY
—This versatile young woman, Ellenor Cook, who with her accompanist, also a girl, appeared in the brilliant peasant dress of Czecho-Slovakia, Poland, Ukrania and Russia, gave the most refreshing, unhackneyed, spirited and finished programme of folk music that we remember either in this city or in the neighboring concert halls of Boston.  This is not in forgetfulness of the comprehensive folksong recitals that the Gideons and Lorraine Wyman, have developed, nor of the colorful Ukrainian chorus under Alexander Koshetz that sang so marvellously in the Olympia Theatre four years ago under the auspices of this same woman's club.


HARTFORD (Conn.) COURANT
—Miss Cook has to an unusual degree that illusive quality called temperament and combined with it a characteristic rare in so young a musician, poise and balance.  Her most poetic interpretations are always against a back-ground of rhythm.  The work she is doing in investigating the folk lore of the countries whose songs she so successfully interprets is a real service to the musical public and to internationalism.


CHARLESTON (S. C.) NEWS AND COURIER
—The songs, not only typical in thought, which was casually interpreted for her hearers by Miss Cook conveyed a great deal of the simple philosophy and fatalism of the peasant.  She further established an intimate atmosphere immediately which was easily maintained

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 by her winning personality and entire lack of self-consciousness.  Her greatest charm lies rather in her sympathetic treatment of the mannerisms of the strange peoples than in her musical interpretations of the sketches.


ST. PETERSBURG (Fla.) TIMES
—Miss Cook has a charming personality and her singing and dancing in various colorful costumes, as well as her piano playing, brought enthusiastic applause from her delighted audience.


MIAMI (Fla.) HERALD
—As sturdy as bad weeds, folk songs have begun to spring up on most concert platforms.  The idea is good, but too often the songs are dull and the singer makes them leaden by thinking that the slight things are allowed to live merely because of their music.  One who gives them gaily and artistically and wraps them in their necessary atmosphere by adding costume, gesture and dancing, is Ellenor Cook.  … The songs are what folks songs should be—fragile bits taken from life that make us feel more than word or picture, the life tone of other peoples.


BUFFALO (N. Y.) EXPRESS
—Ellenor Cook, versatile interpreter of folk songs and dances, charmed a large audience in the Hutchinson High School last night.  Miss Cook offered a delightful hour of interpretation of the songs and dances belonging to far away peoples.  In several little folksongs from Poland and Czecho-Slovakia the audience saw a glimpse of flashing beauty of color and design that was inspiring.



A Few Notable Places where Miss Cook has Appeared

Arts and Crafts Club, Atlanta, Ga.
Woman's Club, St. Petersburg, Fla.
New Century Club, Philadelphia, Pa.
Woman's Club, Germantown, Pa.
Woman's Club, Sewickley, Pa.
Century Club, Scranton, Pa.
Century Club, Rochester, N. Y.
The Fortnightly, Chicago, Ill.
Century Theatre Club, New York.
Studio Club, New York.
Contemporary Club, Newark, N. J.
Schubert Club, Stamford, Conn.
McCall Assn., New Haven, Conn.
Musical Club, Hartford, Conn.
College Club, Hartford, Conn.
Elmwood Woman's Club, Providence, R. I.
University Club, Middletown, Conn.
Parent-Teachers' Assn., Bristol, Conn.
Woman's City Club, Haverhill, Mass.
Middlesex Woman's Club, Lowell, Mass.
Woman's Club, Keene, N. H.
Klifa Club, Burlington, Vt.
Woman's Club, New Bedford, Mass.
Woman's Club, Fall River, Mass.
Norwich Musical Assn., Norwich, Conn.
Women's Press Club, Montreal, Canada
Columbia University, New York.
Connecticut College, New London, Conn.
Chestnut Hill Academy, Chestnut Hill, Pa.
Montclair Academy, Montclair, N. J.
National Cathedral School, Washington,
Gordon Institute, Barnesville, Ga.
Society of Natural Sciences, Buffalo, N. Y.
Highland Hall, Hollidaysburg, Pa.
Moses Brown School, Providence, R. I.
St. Margaret's School, Waterbury, Conn.
Miss Porter's School, Farmington, Conn.
David Mannes School, New York.

For Terms and Dates, Address: THE POND BUREAU, 25 West 43rd St., New York, N. Y.