The Waterbury Democrat., 1944-02-03
SOCIAL
 FUNCTIONS
MSicCIMbS Name
 Ne10 Chairman

Simultaneous announcement of a new appointee to the chairmanship of the Committee on Orchestras of the National Federation of Music Clubs and of a greatly augmented program for this committee, the function of which has previously been largely educational, was made today by Mrs. Guy Patterson Gan nett of Portland, Maine, president of the Federation.
 Mary Howe, widely known com poser, of Washington, D. C., is the new chairman. The augmented pro- gram of the Committee on Orches- tras which she will direct will in- clude close cooperation with the major symphony orchestras with view to the inclusion of a greater number of meritorious American works on their programs. Only works reviewed and approved by the newly created American Com position Committee of the Fedora tion, of which Otto Luening of the faculty of Bennington College is chairman, will be recommended. AS an initial step towards the accomplishment of this new objec- tive, MT. Howe will form a regional committee with member in each city where leading symphony or chestra is located. This committee will supplement the efforts of the State Orchestra Chairmen, already active in the various states, in the attempt to give outstanding Amer ican composers wider hearing.
 Previously the Committee on Orchestras has functioned under the Education Department of the Federation and its task has been primarily to keep our membership advised as to what was transpiring among the orchestraS," Mrs. Gam nett said in making the announce ment. Nov we propose to make 1t an action group.
 'The change is prompted by the greatly enlarged program in SUD- port of American composition which has been undertaken by the Federation, and which hinges upon focusing the organizations pur- chasing power so that 1t can be a direct instrument in insuring the publication and sale of a larger amount of meritorious American music. While continuing to empha- size chamber and choral music, which our clubs purchase in quan- tity each year, we shall also try to insure suspicious orchestral pre- mieres of important new large form works"
 Mrs. Howe, the Federation's new Chairman of OrchestraS, is espe- cially well qualified for this task. She is a member of the Board of the National Symphony Orchestra In Washington and composer of high standing. Her compositions have been played by several of the major symphony orcheStras, among them the National Symphony, the New York Philharmonic Symphony, the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Toronto Symphony, the Chicago Symphony, the Indianapolis Sym phony, the Oklahoma State Sym phony, the Baltimore Symphony, the Rochester Civic Orchestra, and the Philharmonic Symphony of Buenos Aires.
 Most of the major conductors, among them Leopold Stokowski, Hans Kinder, John Barbiroln, Ru- dolph Gang and Sir Ernest Mac Milan, have conducted her works.
 Mrs. Howe studied composition under Gustav Strube and piano under Harold Randolph and Ernest Hutcheson. She is a Fellow of the Mcdowell Colony, member of the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers, a member of the National Association of American Composers and Conduc- tors, and a member of the Board of Directors of Bennington College, Vermont.