Patricia Travers (December 5, 1927 – February 9, 2010) was an American violin child prodigy and actress who withdrew from public performances at age 23. She lived in

Clifton, New Jersey Clifton is a city in Passaic County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. Criss-crossed by several major highways, the city is a regional commercial hub for North Jersey and is a bedroom suburb of New York City in the New York Metropolitan Area. As ...

, her entire life.

Career

Travers began violin lessons at age four which led to her first public performance at age six in the

Falls Village, Connecticut Falls Village is a village and census-designated place in the town of Canaan in Litchfield County, Connecticut, United States. As of the 2010 census it had a population of 538, out of 1,234 in the entire town of Canaan. Because Falls Village is t ...

, summer music festival, Music Mountain. She later performed on CBS radio 'Ford Sunday Hour' show when she was nine. She soloed with the

New York Philharmonic Orchestra The New York Philharmonic, officially the Philharmonic-Symphony Society of New York, Inc., globally known as New York Philharmonic Orchestra (NYPO) or New York Philharmonic-Symphony Orchestra, is a symphony orchestra based in New York City. It is ...

under

Efrem Kurtz Efrem Kurtz (russian: Ефрем Курц; November 7, 1900June 27, 1995) was a Russian conductor. Life and career Kurtz was born in Saint Petersburg, Russia. He studied at the Saint Petersburg conservatory with Alexander Glazunov and Nikolai Tch ...

Lewisohn Stadium Lewisohn Stadium was an amphitheater and athletic facility built on the campus of the City College of New York (CCNY). It opened in 1915 and was demolished in 1973. History The Doric-colonnaded amphitheater was built between Amsterdam and Conven ...

at age ten where she played " Symphonie Espagnole" In 1940, she played the Mendelssohn Concerto with the Léon Barzin-conducted National Orchestral Association at Carnegie Hall. She appeared in the 1941 film '' There's Magic in Music'' with

Irra Petina Irra Petina (April 18, 1908 – January 19, 2000) was an actress and singer as well as a leading contralto with the Metropolitan Opera in New York City. She was called the "floperetta queen" by critic Ken Mandelbaum. Born in St. Petersburg, Russ ...

Diana Lynn Diana Marie Lynn (born Dolores Eartha Loehr, July 5, 1926 – December 18, 1971) was an American actress. Early years Lynn was born in Los Angeles, California. Her father, Louis Loehr, was an oil supply executive, and her mother, Martha Loe ...

, and Allan Jones. In addition to a speaking role, she played

Anton Rubinstein Anton Grigoryevich Rubinstein ( rus, Антон Григорьевич Рубинштейн, r=Anton Grigor'evič Rubinštejn; ) was a Russian pianist, composer and conductor who became a pivotal figure in Russian culture when he founded the Sa ...

's "Romance in E flat" in the film. She was part of a cultural exchange program after

WWII World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

which had her touring Germany.

Dai-keong Lee Dai-Keong Lee (September 2, 1915 – December 1, 2005) was an American composer. His Symphony No. 2 was runner up for the 1952 Pulitzer Prize for Music. He was born in Honolulu, Hawaii, and studied with Roger Sessions at Princeton University ...

wrote "Incantation and Dance" for Travers which she performed in a 1947 recital at Carnegie Hall. Lorin Maazel conducted several performances with her as part of the

Pittsburgh Symphony The ''Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra'' (''PSO'') is an American orchestra based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The orchestra's home is Heinz Hall, located in Pittsburgh's Cultural District. History The Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra is an Americ ...

. She also performed

Brahms Johannes Brahms (; 7 May 1833 – 3 April 1897) was a German composer, pianist, and conductor of the mid-Romantic period. Born in Hamburg into a Lutheran family, he spent much of his professional life in Vienna. He is sometimes grouped with ...

Violin Concerto A violin concerto is a concerto for solo violin (occasionally, two or more violins) and instrumental ensemble (customarily orchestra). Such works have been written since the Baroque period, when the solo concerto form was first developed, up thro ...

with the Boston Symphony Orchestra several times in 1951. One of her final works was a recorded performance for Columbia Records of Sonata No.2 for Violin and Piano by the American composer Charles Ives, the first complete recording of that work, along with the first recording of Roger Sessions' ''Duo for Violin and Piano'' (1942).

Instruments

She owned the 1732 '

Tom Taylor Tom Taylor (19 October 1817 – 12 July 1880) was an English dramatist, critic, biographer, public servant, and editor of ''Punch'' magazine. Taylor had a brief academic career, holding the professorship of English literature and language a ...

Stradivarius A Stradivarius is one of the violins, violas, cellos and other string instruments built by members of the Italian family Stradivari, particularly Antonio Stradivari (Latin: Antonius Stradivarius), during the 17th and 18th centuries. They are c ...

from 1938 to 1954, which was sold to a benefactor who loaned it to

Cal State Northridge California State University, Northridge (CSUN or Cal State Northridge) is a public university in the Northridge neighborhood of Los Angeles, California. With a total enrollment of 38,551 students (as of Fall 2021), it has the second largest u ...

; the violin was later owned briefly by

Joshua Bell Joshua David Bell (born December 9, 1967) is an American violinist and conductor. He plays the Gibson Stradivarius. Early life and education Bell was born in Bloomington, Indiana, to Shirley Bell, a therapist, and Alan P. Bell, a psychologi ...

. She also used a 1733

Giuseppe Guarneri del Gesù Bartolomeo Giuseppe "del Gesù" Guarneri (, , ; 21 August 1698 – 17 October 1744) was an Italian luthier from the Guarneri family of Cremona. He rivals Antonio Stradivari (1644–1737) with regard to the respect and reverence accorded his in ...

violin.

Later life

There are no published explanations of why she stopped public performances. According to one source, who corresponded with Travers in 2007, she gave up concertizing to help her parents manage their varied business interests, which included considerable real-estate holdings. She lived quietly in her childhood home and managed several commercial rental properties that her father had built and caring for her mother Veronica in later years, moving to a condominium shortly after her mother died in 1994. She is buried in St Joseph cemetery in

Millbrook, New York Millbrook is a village in Dutchess County, New York, United States. Millbrook is located in the Hudson Valley, on the east side of the Hudson River, north of New York City. Millbrook is near the center of the town of Washington, of which it is a ...

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Travers, Patricia 2010 deaths 1927 births American child actresses People from Clifton, New Jersey American child musicians Child classical musicians 20th-century American violinists American women violinists 20th-century women musicians 20th-century American women musicians 21st-century American women