A Short History of the PSMA

Musical Amateurs was started in 1935 by Professor Roy Dickinson Welch, chairman of the Princeton University Music Department. Patterned after Henry Drinker's Sunday night singing parties in Philadelphia, an informal group of about twenty musicians met in the living room of Mrs. MacKenty Bryan's house on Sunday afternoons, to sing for their own pleasure works from the choral literature. Professor Welch conducted, and had the assistance of a piano accompanist. The group gradually grew too large for a living room, and moved the meetings to the old Miss Fine's School building (present site of Borough Hall) after World War II, with Mrs. Bryan as its manager, chief cook, and bottle washer. She served a magnificent supper at intermission time!

The popularity and subsequent growth of the organization led to the use of the "new" gymnasium of the school, built around 1955, where there was enough room to house the current membership of that time - 175 or so, and experiment with having an orchestra. Certain traditions evolved, such as singing either Handel's Messiah or the Bach Christmas Oratorio in December - and the Bach Mass in B-minor in May. The sessions were generally conducted by J. Merrill Knapp or Elliot Forbes, both of the University Music Department, with an occasional guest conductor being introduced. Eventually Mrs. Bryan's glorious suppers had to be reduced to "refreshments" because of rising food costs and the tremendous labor involved.

In 1963 Mrs. Bryan retired, the organization was incorporated, a set of Bylaws written up, and an Executive Committee pressed into service. Finally, when Miss Fine's School was sold to the Borough, the Musical Amateurs moved to its present quarters, the Princeton Unitarian Church. Over the years the repertoire has been expanded to include an occasional twentieth century work, such as Orff's Carmina Burana, and usually a Gilbert & Sullivan operetta. Nowadays, each session is conducted by one of over a dozen prominent conductors from the central Jersey area that lend their talents to this remarkable organization.

Last updated 9/23/95