Elisabeth Waldo
| Elisabeth Waldo | |
|---|---|
| Also known as | Elisabeth Waldo Dentzel |
| Born |
June 18, 1918 Yakima, Washington |
| Genres | Exotica |
| Occupation(s) | Musician, composer, conductor |
| Instruments | Violin, flute, percussion |
| Years active | 1940–present |
| Labels |
GNP Crescendo Barbary Coast Records |
| Associated acts |
Leopold Stokowski Los Angeles Philharmonic Yma Sumac |
| Notable instruments | |
| Pre-Columbian flutes and percussion | |
Elisabeth Waldo Dentzel (born June 18, 1918) is an American violinist, composer, songwriter, conductor and ethnomusicologist. A scholar of pre-Columbian era music, she was an early adopter of Native American musical instruments among those trained in European classical music.
Waldo was born in Yakima, Washington to Jane Althea Blodgett, a singer trained at the Boston Conservatory of Music, and Benjamin Franklin Waldo, a descendant of Ralph Waldo Emerson. Her sister Janet (1920-2016) was a film, television and voice actress, best known for work on The Jetsons and Josie and the Pussycats.
She married Carl S. Dentzel (1913-1980), who served as director of the Southwest Museum in Los Angeles, and with whom Waldo shared a love of Asian and Native American culture and artifacts. The couple had two sons, Dana Carl Dentzel and Paul Dentzel.
Waldo grew up on her family's ranch at the edge of the Yakima Indian Reservation in Washington State. She started singing at age three and took up violin by age five. Russian violist Jascha Heifetz heard her play and helped her attain a scholarship to the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia where she received a classical music education.
In 1940 conductor Leopold Stokowski invited Waldo to join the newly formed All-American Youth Orchestra. They toured South America in 1940 and then North America in 1941 before disbanding when the U.S. entered World War II. It was on these tours that Waldo's interest in musical archeology grew and she began collecting pre-Columbian instruments.
...
Wikipedia