| External images | |
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| Portrait illustrated on theremin program cover[1] | |
| Lucie Rosen playing the theremin, on Caramoor Center website | |
Lucie Bigelow Rosen (born 1890[2] Bernardsville, New Jersey died 27 November 1968 New York)[3] was a Theremin soloist known for popularising[4] the use of the instrument in the 1930s and 1940s, and founder of the Caramoor festival.
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Rosen was born Lucie Bigelow Dodge in 1890, and married the lawyer and banker Walter Bigelow Rosen in 1914. They shared a common passion in art and culture, especially Italian, making frequent European trips and collecting works of art for their Caramoor estate that they developed from 1929 to 1939.[5]
By 1930 Lucie was part of a ten person theremin ensemble rehearsing for their first debut performance at the Carnegie Hall with Leon Theremin.[6] Sometime afterward, the Rosens offered Theremin the use of their 37 West Fifty-fourth Street townhouse at low rent. By 1938 Leon Theremin needed money to return to Russia and, according to the Rosen's daughter Anne Stern, Walter offered him ten thousand dollars to create a new machine for Lucie together with all technical papers and rights to produce more for personal use only.[7]
After Walter died in 1951, Lucie expanded the musical performances they had both started in 1940 into the Caramoor festival.[8][9]
