Remembering Mary Davidson

From Michael Ochs, submitted on behalf of Lyle Davidson and Tina Blythe:

We would like to share with you a number of ways to honor the life and work of Mary Davidson.  We are sending this email to as many of her friends and colleagues as we have contact information for--please feel free to forward it to anyone who might want to receive this information. (If you receive this email via forwarding, please accept our apologies: Mary's network of connections is vast: childhood and college friends, neighbors, colleagues, people she met travelling or doing yoga and always kept in touch with . . . we know we missed many important people in the first round.)

1. On Saturday, April 13 at 2:00 p.m., a memorial service will be held at the Cambridge Friends Meeting House, 5 Longfellow Park (just off Brattle Street), Cambridge, MA 02138. The Friends Meeting website has a link to a map on its home page: http://www.fmcquaker.org. A reception will follow the service in the meeting house common room. The meeting house is an easy walk from the Harvard Square stop on the "red" subway line. On the afternoon of the service, free parking will be available around the meeting house itself as well as along Brattle Street. (We'll send out more details about this in March.)
2. On Saturday, February 23 at 7:30 p.m., the opening concert of the Concord Free Public Library’s chamber music season will be dedicated to Mary, who served on the library's music committee while she lived in Concord.  The trio Ensemble Chanterelle, which includes Mary's friend, soprano Sally Sanford, will be performing. The concert is free, but advance reservations are required. (They can be made online beginning two weeks before the concert at www.concordlibrary.org.)

1. The Music Library Association (MLA): This is the national organization devoted to music librarianship and all aspects of music materials in libraries. Mary was a member of it for almost her entire professional life and served in almost every one of its major offices and committees.  Mary's colleague Jim Cassaro, the head of the music library at the University of Pittsburgh, is organizing this effort. He can be reached at: cassaro@pitt.edu.  Checks can be made out to the "Music Library Association" and mailed to Jim Cassaro at: Finney Music Library / University of Pittsburgh / B30 Music Building / Pittsburgh, PA 15260.
2. The Mary Wallace Davidson Fund at the Eastman School of Music: This is the fund that Mary established before she left Eastman after her fourteen years there as head of the Sibley Music Library.  She created the fund to support the acquisition of music in any format by living Americans for the Sibley Music Library. As some of you may know, Mary oversaw the complete redesign of the Sibley Music Library, one of the greatest achievements of her remarkable career. Checks can be made out to "Eastman School of Music," with a note in the memo line that says, "The Mary Wallace Davidson Fund."  The mailing address is: Eric Reuscher / Eastman School of Music Office of Advancement / 26 Gibbs Street / Rochester, NY 14604-2599.  You may also call Eric Reuscher directly at 585-274-1054.
3. The Dana Farber Cancer Institute: Mary was treated at Dana Farber, and the care she received there was truly remarkable: The doctors and nurses and other health care providers Mary saw there possess not only great skill but also a deep and humane kindness. At the end of each of her appointments there, Mary's first words to Lyle or me as we walked to the car were usually about the doctor or nurse we had just seen, and almost always, she'd say, "Isn't she/he just terrific?"  And we could always agree wholeheartedly. Donations can be sent to: The Dana-Farber Cancer Institute /  P.O. Box 849168 / Boston, MA 02284 or made via www.dana-farber.org/gift.

A collection of memories and tributes

Some of you have forwarded to us short pieces you've written about Mary. We've re-read these many times and have taken great joy in them. We think others would, too, and would like very much to share them.  If you have a memory that you'd like to write down or something you're already written to commemorate Mary's life and work, please consider sending it to Lyle and me so that we can put it together with others and share it more widely. (If you have already sent us something, we'll check with you before we put it in the collection.) We hope to have these reflections compiled and ready to share at her memorial service in April.  If you decide to send something, please include a short description of how you knew Mary, and please send it by March 1st. (Photographs in electronic format are also welcome.)