1995 Swan Award Winner: Marjorie Remington

Musical opportunities have been plentiful for Marjorie Remington Richard from Kindergarten on where she directed the class playing their percussion instruments at Lafayette School in Salt Lake City. After moving to Berkeley in 1934, in two years she began to accompany her 5th-grade class at the piano daily as they sang. She sang in glee clubs in jr. high, then sang and accompanied glee and a cappella classes directed by Eunice “Mama” Skinner at Berkeley High. Also, at Berkeley High, Marjorie studied music history and theory with Dorah O’Neill. She did so well that when she entered Mills College in fall of 1943, she was able to pass Dr. Howard Brubeck’s Theory Class by exam and go on to study four part counterpoint and orchestration with Darius Milhaud her second year. 

After her junior year at Mills, Marjorie went off to serve a two-year mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Upon returning, she decided to attend U.C. Berkeley where she earned a Bachelor’s Degree in Music, with a minor in English. Soon after she was married, she taught fourth grade in Utah for one year, returned to Berkeley, and then took twelve years off to start raising her five children. During this time she was active teaching piano and playing organ in church, accompanying soloists and a male chorus in Hayward, CA, and joining the AGO (American Guild of Organists).

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