Cheryl Branham Collection

Conductor and pianist Cheryl Branham currently serves as Director of Music at historic Calvary Baptist Church in Washington, DC.

As a pianist, principal instructors include Nelita True, Stewart Gordon, and Roy Hamlin Johnson at the University of Maryland, Denise Lassimone in England, and John Noel Roberts and David Gibson at Furman University. Dr. Branham serves as a collaborative pianist throughout the DC area, and teaches piano in the Arts Adjunct program of the Holton-Arms School in Bethesda. The materials found within the collection relate to Branham’s dissertation Piano/Forte: A Study of Women Concert Pianists’ Lives and Careers, completed at the University of Maryland in 1995. The dissertation investigates the individual experiences of 23 female concert pianists through interviews and analysis. Branham focuses on questions surrounding career choices, family dynamics, relationships, and personal challenges/successes to gain understanding of the experiences that female pianists share. Much of the dissertation is made up of interview transcript texts; the interviews are excerpted throughout the chapters, and are published in their entirety in appendix I.

In some cases, confidential information was shared during the interview process. This information is available with names removed in a confidential folder in some cases, in other cases the material has been retained in a sealed location within IPAM, available by permission only. Some materials may feature redacted lines where necessary to protect the pianist interviewed.