{{Short description|American all-women orchestra}} {{good article}} {{Use mdy dates|date=April 2025}} {{Use American English|date=November 2025}} {{Infobox orchestra | name = Fadettes of Boston | type = All-women orchestra | short_name = <!-- abbreviated name or initialisation if commonly used --> | image = 1897 Fadettes Orchestra Boston USA.png | caption = The Fadettes, {{circa}} 1897 | alt = | former_name = Fadettes Ladies' Orchestra | founded = {{Start date|1888}} | disbanded = {{End date|1927}} | later_name = <!-- only use for special cases --> | location = Boston, Massachusetts, US | concert_hall = <!-- use for main hall --> | principal_conductor = | music_director = Caroline B. Nichols | concertmaster = | logo = }} '''The Fadettes of Boston''' was an all-women orchestra based in Boston, Massachusetts, United States. Founded by Caroline B. Nichols and Ethel Atwood, it was formed in 1888 as the Boston Fadette Ladies' Orchestra, named after the titular character of George Sand's novel ''La Petite Fadette''. The Fadettes, among other female-only orchestras, challenged gender norms of the 19th and 20th centuries, as many orchestral instruments were deemed inappropriate for women to play.
The ensemble originally comprised a small group of women from a given community who rarely went on tour, but as the Fadettes grew in size and popularity, they played for a paying audience. Between 1890 and 1920, the Fadettes performed at an estimated 6,000 concerts, largely due to a contract with vaudeville manager B.F. Keith signed in 1898. The orchestra's success led to the incorporation of members in the Boston Symphony Orchestra at Keith's Theatre, and women violinists especially became more prevalent. The orchestra also gave away over $500,000 to more than 600 female musicians. After an infrequent concert schedule in the early 1920s, the Fadettes of Boston disbanded in 1927.
==Background and history== {{further|Women in music}} During the 19th and 20th centuries, women faced discrimination in the musical industry. This led to the rise of all-women orchestras, originally known as lady orchestras, with one of the earliest known examples being the Vienna Ladies Orchestra in 1867.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Jagow |first=Shelley M. |year=1998 |title=Women Orchestral Conductors in America: The Struggle for Acceptance—An Historical View from the Nineteenth Century to the Present |url=http://symposium.music.org/index.php?option=com_k2&view=item&id=2151:women-orchestral-conductors-in-america-the-struggle-for-acceptance%E2%80%94an-historical-view-from-the-nineteenth-century-to-the-present&Itemid=124 |journal=College Music Symposium |volume=38 |pages=126–145 |issn=0069-5696 |jstor=40374324 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150921190155/http://symposium.music.org/index.php?option=com_k2&view=item&id=2151:women-orchestral-conductors-in-america-the-struggle-for-acceptance%E2%80%94an-historical-view-from-the-nineteenth-century-to-the-present&Itemid=124 |archive-date=21 September 2015}}</ref> American musicologist Judith Tick notes that the popularity of lady orchestras stemmed from their exploitation of gender discrimination by playing instruments that were typically reserved for men.{{sfn|Tick|1973|p=103}}<ref>{{cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/womenmakingmusic00bowe|page=329|title=Women making music: the Western art tradition, 1150-1950|last1=Bowers|first1=Jane|last2=Tick|first2=Judith|year=1987|publisher=University of Illinois Press|location=Urbana |isbn=978-0-252-01470-3 }}</ref> One of the more notable ensembles was the Fadette Ladies' Orchestra, established in 1888 by conductor Caroline B. Nichols and musician Ethel Atwood,{{sfn|Mitchell|2014|p=26}} making Nichols one of the first female orchestra conductors in the United States.{{sfn|Tick|1973|p=102}} Nichols was previously a violinist for the Marion Osgood Ladies Orchestra, which she left after deeming the orchestra's rules too restrictive.{{sfn|Edwards|2015|pp=19-24}}
The group incorporated in 1895 as the Fadettes of Boston,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://sdrc.lib.uiowa.edu/traveling-culture/chau1/pdf/fadettes/1/brochure.pdf|website=University of Iowa Libraries|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160305024618/http://sdrc.lib.uiowa.edu/traveling-culture/chau1/pdf/fadettes/1/brochure.pdf|archive-date=March 5, 2016|url-status=dead|title=The Fadettes Womans Orchestra of Boston brochure|year=c. 1910}}</ref> named after Fanchon Fadette, the titular character of George Sand's novel ''La Petite Fadette''. The name was chosen for the orchestra as, like the character herself, they strived to bring happiness to their audience.{{sfn|Spitzer|2012|p=70}}{{sfn|Edwards|2015|p=20}} The number of members rose from 6 to 20 by 1898, the same year B.F. Keith booked the group into his theatres.{{sfn|Tick|1973|p=102}} The orchestra included violinists, violists, and drummers,<ref>{{Citation |publisher = The Success Company |location = New York |title = Occupations for women: A book of practical suggestions, for the material advancement, the mental and physical development, and the moral and spiritual uplift of women |author = Frances E. Willard |date = 1897 |oclc = 2665928 |ol = 24361133M }}</ref> and included musicians such as Annie Andros Hawley,<ref>{{Citation |publisher = New England Historical Pub. Co. |location = Boston |title = Sketches of representative women of New England |date = 1904 |oclc = 123500907 |ol = 7194233M }}</ref> Mildred Rogers,<ref name="pp1902" /> and violinist Lillian Thain.<ref>{{Cite magazine|author=<!--staff writer-->|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mwwEAAAAMBAJ&dq=Lillian+Thain+composer&pg=PT28|title=The Final Curtain|date=Sep 4, 1943|publisher=Nielsen Business Media, Inc.|magazine=Billboard|page=29|language=en|volume=55|issue=36|issn=0006-2510}}</ref> Nichols was in charge of the orchestra for 30 years, having musically and professionally trained over 600 women.<ref>{{cite journal|author=Mary Brown Hinely|title=The Uphill Climb of Women in American Music: Performers and Teachers|journal=Music Educators Journal|volume=70|issue=8|date=April 1984|pages=31–35|doi=10.2307/3400871 |jstor=3400871 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/3400871}}</ref>
[[File:1906 Keiths TremontSt Boston USA byDetroitPublishingCo LC.jpg|thumb|right|Entrance to Keith's Theatre, Boston, with a poster for the Fadettes, 1906]] According to Nichols, the Fadettes gave over 6,000 concerts between 1890 and 1920, with half of them as headliners in first-class vaudeville theatres.{{sfn|Tick|1973|p=102}} At a concert in Pittsburgh in 1902, for instance, the Fadettes played marches, waltzes, songs and arias by Frederick Field Bullard, Daniel Auber, Karl Michael Ziehrer, and George M. Rosey, among others.<ref name="pp1902">{{cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-pittsburgh-press/184548369/|title=Fadettes win approbation: women's orchestra delights admirers of good music at exposition|newspaper=The Pittsburgh Press|date=September 20, 1902}}</ref> The group also performed at the Los Angeles Orpheum,<ref>{{cite journal|first=Stan|last=Singer|title=Vaudeville in Los Angeles, 1910-1926: Theaters, Management, and the Orpheum|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/3640790|journal=Pacific Historical Review|volume=61|issue=1|date=February 1992|pages=103–113|doi=10.2307/3640790 |jstor=3640790}}</ref> and at Keith's Theatre, members of the Fadettes replaced Boston Symphony Orchestra members during performances.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://cambridge.dlconsulting.com/?a=d&d=Chronicle19020531-01.2.70|title=Keith's Theatre|date=May 31, 1902|newspaper=The Cambridge Chronicle|publisher=Cambridge Public Library}}</ref> Starting around 1918, their music accompanied films that played in Boston and New York theatres. This was due to Nichols's growing curiosity about musical accompaniment for silent films.{{sfn|Spitzer|2012|p=75}} From 1888 to 1920, the Fadettes donated over $500,000 {{USDCY|500000|1888}} to over 600 female musicians, but the Fadettes disbanded in 1927 following a sporadic concert schedule during the early 1920s.{{sfn|Mitchell|2014|p=26}}{{sfn|Edwards|2015|p=23}}
==Performance style and legacy== The Fadettes of Boston initially operated as a club of local women, but as it expanded it began more regularly touring and performing for paying audiences.{{sfn|Edwards|2015|pp=13-14, 17, 20}} The ensemble challenged gender norms, as the performers wore white shimmery gowns considered traditionally feminine, while they played a wide variety of instruments, which were considered unbefitting of women at the time.{{sfn|Macleod|1993|pp=291–308}} Women violinists in particular became more common,<ref name="babel" /> and the prevalence of women in the musical industry led to subsequent shifts in women's uniforms, going from white dresses similar to what the Fadettes wore to more formal black outfits, hinting at a more refined and professional ensemble.{{sfn|Macleod|1993|p=299}}
==Gallery== <gallery class="center"> File:1909 Fadettes PittsburghPress January17.png|Newspaper spread about the Fadettes, ''Pittsburgh Press'', 1909 File:1910 motto Fadette Orchestra of Boston brochure detail.png|Detail of promotional brochure, 1910 File:Morning Serenade, Berliner.png|Label of a Berliner Gramophone record; "Morning Serenade", played by the original quartet and recorded in Aug 10, 1897<ref>{{Cite web |title=Berliner matrix 830. Morning serenade / Boston Fadettes Ladies Brass Quartette |url=https://adp.library.ucsb.edu/index.php/matrix/detail/2000148228/830-Morning_serenade |access-date=2024-03-03 |website=Discography of American Historical Recordings}}</ref> </gallery>
==Variant names== {{div col|colwidth=28em}} * Boston Fadettes Ladies Brass Quartette<ref>WorldCat. Boston Fadettes Ladies Brass Quartette. [https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/45485101 Morning Serenade], recorded on Aug. 10, 1897.</ref> * Boston Fadette Lady Orchestra * Boston Fadette Orchestra * Boston Fadettes * Fadette Ladies' Orchestra<ref>Fadette Ladies' Orchestra, no.25 Winter Street. Boston Almanac, 1894</ref><ref name="babel">{{cite news|url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=chi.19012767&seq=28&q1=nichols|title=Fadette Ladies' Orchestra ... Mrs. Carrie B. Nichols as leader and Miss Ethel Atwood business manager|newspaper=Public Opinion|volume=14|issue=1|date=October 8, 1892|page=12}}</ref> * Fadette Orchestra * Fadette Women's Orchestra * The Fadettes * The Fadettes Orchestra * Fadettes Women's Orchestra {{div col end}}
==See also== *{{annotated link|Women's club movement in the United States}}
==References== {{reflist|2}}
===Citations=== * {{cite thesis|url=https://digital.lib.washington.edu/server/api/core/bitstreams/8eb9462c-73e9-4d46-aa0f-4f5852607670/content#page135|via=University of Washington|year=2015|last=Edwards|first=Anna|title=Gender and the Symphonic Conductor|location=University of Washington}} * {{cite journal|last=Macleod|first=Beth Abelson|title='Whence Comes the Lady Tympanist?' Gender and Instrumental Musicians in America, 1853-1990.|journal=Journal of Social History|volume=27|issue=2|year=1993|doi=10.1353/jsh/27.2.291 |jstor=3788304 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/3788304|access-date=April 12, 2025}} * {{cite book|last=Mitchell|first=Jon Ceander|title=Trans-Atlantic Passages: Philip Hale on the Boston Symphony Orchestra, 1889–1933|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cNEaBgAAQBAJ&pg=PA26|date=December 10, 2014|publisher=Palgrave Macmillan|isbn=978-1-137-44444-8}} * {{cite book|editor-last=Spitzer|editor-first=John|year=2012|title=American Orchestras in the Nineteenth Century|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0Sg91DGhnCsC|publisher=University of Chicago Press|isbn=9780226769776}} * {{cite journal|first=Judith|last=Tick|title=Women as Professional Musicians in the United States, 1870-1900|journal=Anuario Interamericano de Investigacion Musical|volume=9|year=1973|pages=95–133|doi=10.2307/779908 |jstor=779908 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/779908|url-access=subscription}}
==Further reading== * {{cite web|url=https://www.rosariamacera.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/The-Unfinished-Symphony_Rosaria-Macera.pdf|title=THE UNFINISHED SYMPHONY: The Growth of Women's Orchestras and Women in Orchestras in America|website=rosariamacera.com|date=May 22, 1996|first=Rosaria|last=Macera}}
==External links== {{commons category|Fadettes of Boston}} * Johns Hopkins University, Levy Sheet Music Collection. Marie Louka (composer). [http://jhir.library.jhu.edu/handle/1774.2/15951 The Fadettes; March & Two-Step]. Philadelphia: World Publishing Co., 1904. "Dedicated to Mrs. Caroline B. Nichols, Director of the Fadettes of Boston, The Famous Ladies' Orchestra."
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Category:Cultural history of Boston Category:Disbanded American orchestras Category:Musical groups established in 1888 Category:Musical groups disestablished in the 1920s Category:Orchestras from Boston Category:Women's orchestras Category:1888 establishments in Massachusetts Category:1920s disestablishments in Massachusetts Category:Women in Boston Category:History of women in Massachusetts