Margaret Purcell

Margaret Purcell (18 August 1914 – Fall 1991 Purcell's father was the journalist Pendleton Dudley and her mother the motorist Hermine Dudley. Purcell's sister was the dancer, choreographer, and teacher Jane Dudley.

Education Margaret Purcell studied piano with pianist and composer Katherine Heyman between 1927 and 1928, who was a proponent of the music of Alexander Scriabin. and her mother Hermine Dudley was the first women motorist to drive across the United States. Hermine took her daughter Margaret on a trip abroad in 1938, taking several weeks to explore the fjords and roads of Norway and Sweden. Margaret's later marriage to Richard Purcell was short, due to an accident. conducting the American Chamber Music Ensemble. This concert also included works by Vincent d'Indy and Richard Arnell. This event also featured choreography by her sister Jane Dudley, and took place at Studios 1 and 2, The Place.

Purcell's setting of text demonstrates a wide interest in authors including Rabindranath Tagore, Langston Hughes, Walter De La Mare, Otomo no Yakamochi and the Hindu mystic Lalla.

Selected works

I Wait My Lord No Regret Lament Song for Little SnookContralto and Piano1956 – 1957 Chinese poem, 500BC. Langston Hughes. 13th Arabian poem. I travelled with them Poem The Plum TreeTenor and Piano1957 Al-Mu'yamid ibn Abbad. Saigyo Hoshi. Plaineth TwilightTenor and Piano1951 Anonymous. William Sydney Walker.Two Songs: Monastery Evening