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The Fadettes of Boston (1888 – c. 1920) was an all-women orchestra based in Boston, Massachusetts, and directed by Caroline B. Nichols.
 | This article's lead section may be too short to adequately summarize the key points. (December 2024) |
The group incorporated in 1895 as "the Fadettes of Boston",[1] named after Fanchon Fadette, the titular character of George Sand's novel La Petite Fadette.[2] The original group of six expanded to twenty by 1898,[3] with "a first violin and director, four additional first violins, four second violins, two violas, two violincellos, two contrabassos, kettle-drums and a bass, two flutes and piccolo, two clarinets, two cornets, two French horns, three trombones, snare-drum and 'traps,' and piano-forte."[4]
In 1898, vaudeville manager B.F. Keith booked them into his theatres all over the United States. According to Nichols, between 1890 and 1920 the Fadettes gave over 6,000 concerts, half of them as headliners in first-class vaudeville theatres."[3] At a concert in Pittsburgh in 1902, for instance, the Fadettes played marches, waltzes, songs and arias by Frederic Field Bullard, Daniel Auber, Karl Michael Ziehrer, George M. Rosey, Victor G. Boehnlein [5] and others.[6] The group also performed at the Los Angeles Orpheum.[7]
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The performers "wore shimmery gowns."[8] Among the musicians were Annie Andros Hawley,[9] Mildred Rogers,[6] and Lillian Thain (violin).[10]
Nichols "conducted the orchestra for thirty years and trained over six hundred women for professional careers as orchestral musicians."[11]
Portrait of Carrie Nichols, conductor, ca.1897
Portrait of Ethel Atwood, orchestra founder, business manager and musician, ca.1893
Entrance to Keith's Theatre, Boston, with poster for the Fadettes, 1906
Newspaper spread about the Fadettes, Pittsburgh Press, 1909
Detail of promotional brochure, 1910
Label of a Berliner Gramophone record; "Morning Serenade", played by the original quartet and recorded in Aug 10, 1897[12]
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