Ruth Linda Deyo: Child Prodigy

By Bill Kleppel

Recently, we had a visiting patron in the Local History Rooms doing research for a project on Hudson Valley composers. He was particularly interested in sheet music from the 19^th and early 20^th centuries.  My colleague and I selected material for him in advance so he could get to work right away.

This is when we happened upon LH Document Box 780-M. Inside the box were musical compositions created by Ruth Linda Deyo in 1892. This music was published when Ms. Deyo was seven years old.

Ruth Linda Deyo was born in Poughkeepsie in 1884 to Peter Deyo, a banker at The Poughkeepsie National Bank, and Ida Florence Woolsey. Ruth’s special aptitude was noticed by her parents when she began playing the piano at the age of three. She started creating her own music soon afterward. Her first music recitals in Poughkeepsie were held at parlor concerts, church gatherings, and local musicals, as well the Deyo home on 60 Academy Street, where they lived until 1890. The family moved to West Superior, Wisconsin, in April of that year.¹ The Deyo’s would return frequently to the Hudson Valley to visit family and friends in Poughkeepsie and New Paltz.

In September of 1893 at the age of nine, Ruth appeared at the Chicago World’s Fair. She performed to a large crowd at the fair’s assembly hall in the Woman’s Building.² Her notoriety and prodigious talent would only manifest themselves as she continued to hone her skills. Ruth would eventually play to concert goers in the thousands, both nationally and around the globe, becoming one of the most respected and sought after concert pianists from the United States.

Ruth returned to the Hudson Valley region on a frequent basis. She was involved in a concert with the Mandolin Club at the Vassar Institute in May of 1898, playing both orchestral standards and her own original music.³  She soon began studying in New York City under the tutelage of American composer Edward MacDowell.

On October 21, 1904, Ruth returned to give a captivating performance at the Collingwood Opera House. A Poughkeepsie Eagle journalist concluded his article regarding the show by writing, “Miss Deyo, it is said, will sail for Germany in early November to continue her studies. The Collingwood Opera House will hardly be large enough to hold the people who will want to hear her when she returns.”⁴

While studying in Europe, Ruth was given encouragement from musical icons like Polish pianist and composer Jan Paderewski.⁵ Paderewski would later become Prime Minister of Poland. He also graced the stage of the Collingwood on February 7, 1902.

Later in her career, Ruth returned the favor to Paderewski by giving a benefit concert in Holyoke, Massachusetts, for the composer’s Polish Victims Fund in November 1917 during World War I.⁶

Her performances brought accolades from critics and music lovers alike. There was great admiration for her ability to subtly change her playing style from one piece of music to the next, as well as for her musical versatility within each composition. She particularly thrived within the music of Bach, Chopin, Scarlatti, and others.⁷

Her schedule became increasingly hectic and all-consuming during these years as she played on both sides of the Atlantic. On March 10, 1906, Ruth appeared in “The New Music Society of America” concert at Carnegie Hall in New York as a featured soloist.

As Ruth got older, she became fascinated with Egyptian culture. In 1924, she decided to take a break from her concert career in order to travel to Cairo to study Egyptian history and art. She immersed herself in all things Egypt. Ruth even became friends with archeologist and explorer Howard Carter, who discovered the tomb of King Tutankhamen in November of 1922.⁸

Ruth wasn’t without her own eccentricities.  She told others of her ability to converse with, and to be a conduit to, the Egyptian sun god, Ra. Ruth claimed to have received guidance from Ra to begin creating her magnum opus “Diadem of Stars.”    

The more she began to cultivate Egyptian folklore and culture into her work, the more substantial and sprawling her opera became. Ruth developed “Diadem” in collaboration with a Manchester, England, born violinist named Charles Dalton. Dalton was also a veteran of World War I and worked in the British Consulate in Cairo. The couple married in Egypt in 1932.⁹

“Diadem of Stars” included historically and culturally accurate Egyptian sets and fashion designs for the many characters associated with it. It was a three act opera with a musical score spanning over 700 pages!

Ruth and her husband would live the rest of their lives in Egypt. She would continually work on “Diadem,” even creating smaller incarnations from the larger work.¹⁰ Portions of the opera were performed to several different audiences, including Egypt’s King Farouk I. She passed away on March 4, 1960, at the age of 75 in the city of Giza, and was buried beside her husband Charles at the British Protestant cemetery in Cairo.¹¹ Unfortunately, the full production never came to fruition. None of Ruth’s performances were ever recorded for posterity.

Yet Ruth Linda Deyo’s work didn’t die.

Two recent artistic expressions, drawing upon Ruth Linda Deyo’s work, can be testaments to why history matters, and how it can be utilized into creating something provocative and relevant. Los Angeles based artist and filmmaker Mariah Garnett has taken the productions of Ruth Linda Deyo, and incorporated them into her own artistic innovations. “Mariah Garnett: Dreamed This Gateway,” and “A Heart of Opal Fire.”

Mariah is Ruth Linda Deyo’s great-grand niece.

Mariah Garnett’s multi-media creations were inspired by historical archival material related to her great aunt’s prolific career and extraordinary life. She collaborated with experimental vocalists, filmmakers, playwrights, opera singers, and other artists to achieve these works of art.

Mariah celebrates Deyo’s existence as well as fully confronting elements of her family’s cultural complicity with colonial oppression, cultural appropriation, and other issues. She explores “unexpected and poignant connections between spirituality, trauma, and art-making through the artist’s queer lens.”^12,13

There are so many ways that people immerse themselves in studying history. With her work, Mariah Garnett breathes life into history itself, gives it purpose, and makes it even more essential. What history teaches us can be utilized to make sense of the society we inhabit together.

REFERENCES

1. Finan, Emily. “Ruth Lynda Deyo: A Hatshepsut of Our Time.” Historic Huguenot Street Collections, 28 Mar. 2017, hhscollections.wordpress.com/2017/03/23/ruth-lynda-deyo-a-hatshepsut-of-our-time/.
2. “‘Delicacy, Grace, and a Degree of Virtuosity’, Ruth Lynda Deyo.” Omeka RSS, Hudson River Valley Heritage, omeka.hrvh.org/exhibits/show/ruthlyndadeyo/introduction. Accessed 8 Mar. 2024.
3. “Miss Deyo One of The Leading Pianists in The Country.” Com, The Poughkeepsie Eagle, 28 May 1917, newscomny.newspapers.com/image/114037863/.
4.   “Triumphs of Ruth Lynda Deyo: An American Pianist in European Musical Centers.”New York Heritage Digital Collections,   Historic Huguenot Street, 2020, cdm16694.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/hhs/id/3036/rec/8. – Document originally produced in 1905
5. “Miss Deyo Gives Concert For Polish Victims Fund.” Com, The Poughkeepsie Eagle, 13 Nov. 1917, 1) newscomny.newspapers.com/image/114061098/?pqsid=lMJYc13vD1LgfxuXEImvJg%3A38968%3A305349041&match=1.
6. “Elegant Concert: The Mandolin Club Has It’s Turn.” Com, The Poughkeepsie Eagle, 7 May 1898, newscomny.newspapers.com/image/114044433/?terms=%22ruth%20linda%20deyo%22&pqsid=NF7OtobYQ0B09c67M0uJcQ%3A1234744%3A1253379631&match=1.
7. Ancestry.com. U.S., Reports of Deaths of American Citizens Abroad, 1835-1974[database on-line]. Lehi, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2010.
8. Finan, Emily. “Ruth Lynda Deyo: A Hatshepsut of Our Time.” Historic Huguenot Street Collections, 28 Mar. 2017, hhscollections.wordpress.com/2017/03/23/ruth-lynda-deyo-a-hatshepsut-of-our-time/.
9. “The Diadem of Stars and Charles Dalton.” Omeka RSS, Historic Huguenot Street, omeka.hrvh.org/exhibits/show/ruthlyndadeyo/the-diadem-of-stars-and-charle. Accessed 13 Mar. 2024.
10. “Ruth Deyo Dalton in the U.S., Reports of Deaths of American Citizens Abroad, 1835-1974.” Com, www.ancestrylibrary.com/discoveryui-content/view/140807:1616?tid=&pid=&queryId=efd4111e-3751-4327-a971-e627b7c54aab&_phsrc=xFU322&_phstart=successSource. Accessed 22 Mar. 2024.
11. Donoghue, Katy. “Mariah Garnett: A Heart of Opal Fire.” Art, 20 Nov. 2023, whitewall.art/whitewaller/mariah-garnett-a-heart-of-opal-fire/.
12. “Mariah Garnett: Dreamed This Gateway: Contemporary Arts Museum Houston.” Contemporary Arts Museum Houston |, Nina and Michael Zilkha Gallery, 11 Mar. 2024, camh.org/event/mariah-garnett-dreamed-this-gateway/.

IMAGES:

Deyo, Ruth Linda. Compositions. Peter Deyo, 1892. Poughkeepsie Public Library District

Deyo, Ruth Linda. Harmonies. Peter Deyo, 1892. Poughkeepsie Public Library District

Poughkeepsie Public Library District; the Scrapbooks of Charles H. Hickok 1902 – 1920.

Hale, Philip. Ruth Lynda Deyo. [ca. 1890–1934]. Web. 04 Mar 2024. <https://ark.digitalcommonwealth.org/ark:/50959/vh53x8909>.

Mariah Garnett, still from “The Pow’r of Life is Love,” 2021, Multi-channel video installation, 4K video, color, sound, 13 minutes; courtesy of the artist and Commonwealth and Council, Los Angeles.

Mariah Garnett, The Pow’r of Life is Love, 2021. Multi-channel video installation, 4k video with sound, 13:00 minutes. Courtesy the artist and Commonwealth and Council, Los Angeles. Installation view at Contemporary Arts Museum Houston, 2022. Photo by Sean Fleming.