About the Artists
Alexandra Cade is a Ph.D. candidate in the history of American civilization at the University of Delaware. An interdisciplinary scholar and musician, Cade studies the material culture of music, performance, and tourism in the early 19th-century Atlantic World. She has worked at the Sigal Music Museum and Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, and has undertaken fellowships through Winterthur, the Museum of Early Southern Decorative Arts, and the Classical American Homes Preservation Trust. Cade received her bachelor of music in viola performance from the Eastman School of Music and her master of arts degree from the Winterthur Program in American Material Culture, where she completed her thesis on amateur-made antebellum American pianos.
Tommy Dougherty is a native of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and is a violinist and composer of orchestral, chamber, and solo works. The Orchestra of St. Luke’s recently premiered a new work by Tommy through his participation in the DeGaetano Composition Institute, where he worked closely with mentor composer Anna Clyne. His music has been performed by the Johnstown Symphony Orchestra, American Composers Orchestra, the Modern Violin Ensemble, and Alarm Will Sound, and he is the recipient of three ASCAP Morton Gould Young Composer Awards. Tommy currently lives in San Diego where he plays with the San Diego Symphony.
The Winterthur Suite and Ruth’s Fugue in Chinese Parlor
The fugue composed by Ruth du Pont is the most complete of her musical creations. Trained in piano at the Peabody Conservatory in Baltimore, Ruth found joy and solace in playing and listening to music. While seeking inspiration for their own Winterthur composition, Allie Cade and Tommy Dougherty found Ruth’s fugue in the archives. This became the inspiration for the final movement of the Winterthur Suite. You can hear this movement in the Chinese Parlor on the introductory tour of the house rooms.
Beginning June 8, you can listen to the full Winterthur Suite in the Transformations exhibition.