In the 1990’s, except for El Paso Symphony enthusiasts, the El Paso community at large seemingly had little interest in classical music. Many assumed a concert where classical music from Beethoven or Frederic Chopin would be performed would fail to generate audiences. However, a determined woman, impassioned by Chopin’s music, would bring an entire community together to enjoy the lyrical tenderness of his pieces. Not only did she touch the heart of a community, but she left a legacy that inspires many youth to find their purpose in life. Here you will read the story of such a woman who left a mark on El Paso’s cultural history, and who, since childhood, found that light that would lead her to her dreams.
Image caption: Lucy Scarbrough (Photo courtesy of the Scarbrough Family)
In 1927, Lucy Ardans was born in Encino, New Mexico, the youngest of 10 children. Music played an essential part in her childhood. With her mother as her first instructor and the person who constantly encouraged her, Lucy played piano daily. One day at age 11, she caught sound for the first time of the one who would become her main inspiration, Frédéric Chopin, a genius Polish musician. He was a composer of marvelous and expressive piano pieces that, with every note, made Lucy fall in love with his music more and more. It seems she could not get enough of Chopin’s music, studying it until she dismantled it. Later in her life, Lucy confessed that it was Chopin’s music that finally convinced her to become a pianist herself. Lucy was to become the very inspiration that Chopin’s music instilled in her. For Lucy, Chopin was the Bob Dylan of her life.
At the age of 16, Lucy began her lifelong journey to become a successful pianist, studying under well-known musicians such as the American pianist and teacher Silvio Scionti and Russian pianist Maurice Lichtman, who were significant music influences for her. After graduating from high school, she was accepted at the American Conservatory of Music in Chicago (ACM), a private school where many prestigious and pronounced artists taught master classes on different instruments. The school graduated students, such as Leo Sowerby and George Perle, who later received the prestigious Pulitzer Prize for Music. As a prominent music school student, she earned the Conservatory’s top prize, the John R. Hattstaedt Award for outstanding musicianship.
Lucy also performed as a soloist for the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and the Evanston Symphony Orchestra. Upon graduating and earning her degrees from the ACM, she taught at the Chicago Musical College, where she continued to study piano and hone her craft with the renowned Rudolph Ganz, distinguished for being the first concert pianist in the United States to feature the work of Maurice Ravel. Moreover, she participated as a judge in competitions, such as the famous Chopin Competition in Miami, and was one of the three judges for the United States Chopin Competition.
Years later, Lucy would meet the man who would become her lifelong partner, Paul Scarbrough. The two would soon marry in Santa Rosa, New Mexico, and the person we know as Lucy Scarbrough was born. Throughout their many years together, Paul encouraged her to always give her best to everything she did. He was there for Scarbrough at every event, helping set up seating and stage, but mainly for moral support.
The Scarbroughs soon settled in Albuquerque, New Mexico, where Scarbrough taught at St. Pius X High School, founded the Albuquerque Interparochial Choir and served as the Music Director of the Albuquerque Light Opera Company. She also served alongside her husband in the Albuquerque Music Club. In 1963, they both received a double ribbon merit award for the musical The Albuquerque Story, produced by the Albuquerque Music Club.
In the 1970s, Scarbrough and her family made one final move to the culturally rich city of El Paso, Texas. In a personal interview, Ginger Scarbrough, the eldest of Scarbrough’s children, remarked that her mother discovered El Paso during her parents’ honeymoon. Ginger Scarbrough reminisced that for her mother, “El Paso had a special culture that you could not find in other places.” Scarbrough felt at home in El Paso, a place where the people always considered her as family, where she found many opportunities. Ginger Scarbrough continued, “Whoever came in and started working with her, they became her family.”
Image caption: Lucy Scarbrough (Photo courtesy of the Scarbrough Family)
In 1973, Scarbrough made her first appearance at El Paso Community College (EPCC) as a pianist performer during its first commencement ceremony. She would go on to teach at the college for 49 years. EPCC was a significant part of the Scarbrough musical legacy.
Having found a home at EPCC, Scarbrough founded the College’s music department, which she started from “scratch” and developed into a program that currently thrives with numerous students who learn, perform, and carry on Scarbrough’s spirit. As a music professor, Scarbrough was all about excellence. She was a dedicated instructor who appreciated and treasured all different styles of music, embracing ambiguity when teaching her students, never having a specific method to make them learn. Students reflected on what they learned, Scarbrough instilling in them a “collaborative effort.” Ginger Scarbrough said that for her mother, “Learning is a collaborative effort between student and teacher.” Scarbrough encouraged her students to engage with each other and her as they improved their craft. She spent time searching for methods and dynamics with which she could help her students musically mature. She not only encouraged her students, but she also helped them develop confidence and poise, seeing in them the bigger picture of life.
“She really knew how to teach. She developed a very secure classroom environment, where they would feel confident getting up and teaching each other,” said Ginger Scarbrough. She made them understand music theory and made it easy for them to test into the highest music theory classes at the university because she knew how to teach. Everyone wondered how these youths could achieve such high scores, but right behind their knowledge stood Scarbrough.
“People reach out to me and relate how my mom made them feel when they met her,” commented Ginger Scarbrough. Outside of the classroom, Scarbrough gave good advice and listened to those who needed it. She was a very motivational person and always kept a positive attitude. Her encouragement went beyond students; she touched all around her: family, friends, colleagues and the entire community. She would often say, “My advice to people is if you want it, go for it, but you are going to have to work.” For Scarbrough, the community played a vital role in her life. It was the people who allowed her to challenge herself and to share her love and passion for music, establishing the El Paso Civic Orchestra, which she conducted for 30 years.
Image caption: A Young Lucy Scarbrough (Photo courtesy of the Scarbrough Family)
She was a woman who believed that music and the arts bring people together. As the EPCC Music Program Director, Scarbrough founded several music festivals and created events for the community. In 1977, she launched the EPCC Arts Festival, a one-night event at the time that served as cultural enrichment for the El Paso community. She put together the Ballet Folklorico, the drama department, her orchestra, her chorus, and the art department to celebrate the arts. Forty-four years later the Arts Festival remains an integral part of the College. It has expanded from one day to several months, showcasing and celebrating the music, dance, drama, literature, and lectures from EPCC and community members.
Scarbrough sat on the Founding Board of the El Paso Opera company, which, as few people know, was called Opera a La Carte, because, initially, complete operas were not performed, only selections from operas, much like dining out when different items are selected off the menu. Scarbrough’s full intent was to make the “a la carte” project successful, but, unfortunately, the situation became “bad,” said Ginger Scarbrough. She did not achieve her goal, and soon thereafter, Scarbrough was no longer associated with The El Paso Opera Company.
However, misfortune at times leads to fortune, serendipity, as they say. In 1995, Scarbrough would come full circle with Frédéric Chopin, her childhood inspiration, as the failure with the El Paso Opera Company led to her magnum opus, The El Paso Chopin Music Festival, for which she received international recognition. The festival enjoyed 25 years of success up to Scarbrough’s passing in 2020 and is expected to continue well beyond the pandemic. The festival commemorates the music of Frédéric François Chopin, the 19th-century Polish composer and virtuoso pianist best known for his many solo pieces for piano. Credited with developing the modern approach to the piano, Chopin’s works are for the listener and for the performer combined. Scarbrough told USA Today she was inspired to establish the festival because of the great influence Chopin’s music has had worldwide. “Chopin was one of the greatest world ambassadors,” Scarbrough said. “His music is truly a universal language of beauty that knows no barriers of nation or culture.” Ginger Scarbrough told ABC-7 that 37,000 people have enjoyed the festival since its inception.
“It took everyone working hard to take that dream and make it happen,” said Ginger Scarbrough. The music festival stemmed from Scarbrough’s idea to share her love for Chopin’s music and offer it for free. Scarbrough “could have charged a lot of money for the tickets,” said Ginger Scarbrough, “but it was important to her [Scarbrough] that everybody, from every walk of life, from every economic standpoint, could go.” With many people in the committee fearing the project would fail, Scarbrough met adversity head-on and took the risk. While the festival is EPCC sponsored, Scarbrough engaged directly with the community. Nobody participated more than Scarbrough in the events that she created. Through her determination, dedication, and her unbridled love for Chopin, the festival succeeded and flourished. The diversity of her audiences surprised her, but she completely loved that her music brought people together who appeared to have nothing in common.
As a musician, Scarbrough devoted her time to be as perfect as she could. In an interview, she mentioned that Chopin’s music fit her hand. Ginger Scarbrough related that her mother spent hours, even days, practicing with her score in hand, directing the orchestra to perfection. Scarbrough dedicated a lot of time learning and memorizing compositions, never stopping practice until she felt she had given it her best. She had a sense of perfectionism and was very critical in evaluating a performance. She practiced six to eight hours daily to perfect a performance.
Image caption: Lucy Scarbrough (Photo courtesy of the Scarbrough Family)
Most people knew her as a pianist, but she was also a vocal instructor, and quite the singer herself, with a “lyrical opera voice,” said Ginger Scarbrough. This allowed her to judge vocals or instrumentation that enabled students to improve. After three semesters in her chorus, they were ready to sing in a concert.
Such determination led her to receive honorable awards and acknowledgments for her excellence as a director, professor and musician. In 1991, she received the Minnie Stevens Piper award for excellence in teaching by the Minnie Stevens Piper Foundation of San Antonio. And in 1996, Scarbrough was inducted into the Women’s Hall of Fame at a ceremony by the United States Commission of Women. In 2014, she received the Hispanic Heritage Award, which was very important to her. She was also bestowed with the EPCC Arts award for being the founder and director of the EPCC Arts Festival.
Most notably, in 2019, the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage of the Republic of Poland awarded her the Meritorious for Polish Culture medal in honor of her achievements in promoting the music of Frédéric Chopin to American audiences. It is the highest award any musician could receive for Chopin’s classical music. Ginger Scarbrough disclosed that it took three years of going to the Polish government to get it done. Scarbrough, with her Chopin work, brought Polish people together in El Paso, and for this reason alone, she deserved the honorable recognition. No one knew more about Chopin. She embodied the belief, “Chopin knows no barriers of nation and culture,” which is precisely what she promoted with her music, music festivals, students and family.
Most would think that the Meritorious for Polish Culture medal was Scarbrough’s most significant accomplishment. However, one stands higher, her children. What is most admirable about Scarbrough is that she never left her family behind. Some would imagine that such a busy pianist, instructor and director would hardly have time for her family, but this was not the case. She included her family in her work, calling her children and asking for their opinion about a composition, about what feeling it evokes. Ginger Scarbrough shared that “she [Scarbrough] liked getting us involved in her projects so she could brag on what we did.” Ginger Scarbrough also remembered how her father, Paul Scarbrough, would set up the chairs for the Chopin Music Festival, and how she, along with her siblings, watched their mother practice on and on. Scarbrough maintained a very close relationship with her children until her very last day and continues to be a central part of their lives.
Faced with many obstacles and struggles throughout her life, Scarbrough quickly learned that adversi- ty makes us stronger. She believed that if one wants something, she must go for it de- spite what others may say, just knowing it will always require hard work. She main- tained a gentle and inspirational affection towards everyone who surrounded her. Hav- ing traveled a hard road in life, she ar- rived where she want- ed to be: a loving wife, a wonderful mom, a gifted pianist, a caring humanitarian and an inspiring human being in all she did.
I asked Ginger Scarbrough what comes to her mind when she thinks about her mother. She touchingly said, “inspiration, encouragement and positivity.” Scarbrough towered as a visionary woman who encouraged people to express art in their own way. She embraced all kinds of music and treasured their unique style. She believed the way to achieve something is through “personal communication,” for when we want something, we must directly engage with our audience. She used music as a method of communication, through which she would transmit her love, devotion and admiration for Chopin’s music. She utilized music to give people a goal, to provide students an opportunity to build confidence and believe they can achieve anything if they work for it. She taught to “reject rejection” and pursue one’s goals, regardless of setback and adversity.
Image caption: Lucy Scarbrough (Photo courtesy of the Scarbrough Family)
Ginger Scarbrough reflected that her father predeceased her mother by ten years. During the final days of her mother’s life, when she would call her, Scarbrough told her how much she missed Paul. She used to say that the piano was her friend when he was gone. Ginger Scarbrough also shared that Scarbrough had her children sing a “good-bye” letter of sorts on her last day of life, a song she had written for a musical she was writing on Billy the Kid. The song is called “Hasta La Vista” and is about the romantic side of Billy the Kid and the woman he is rumored to have loved. After several emotional attempts from each sibling, Scarbrough sang it herself, with that expressive lyrical voice she possessed. It is heartbreaking to say good-bye to a mother who always taught her kids true love, passion, and dedication. However, even on her last day, Scarbrough was still very much the vocal instructor to her kids as she had been to her students.
Dr. Lucy Scarbrough passed away on June 13, 2020, leaving saddened hearts but also a legacy of accomplishments that prevail today and will far into the future. She remains a role model, not only for her students but for anyone who attends the festivals she created. It takes a whole lot of courage to dare to challenge ourselves and never limit our dreams. For Scarbrough, impossibility did not exist. At the age of 92, she still had a new musical planned that would have undoubtedly prospered. Music forever ingrained in her heart since a very young age filled her life. Her family, friends, and all those who had the honor of being touched by such a wonderful woman remember her never-ending happiness. Lucy Scarbrough left a mark on El Paso Community College and earned a place no one can ever fill. Dr. Lucy Scarbrough, a legend of El Paso’s music history, an icon of passion and dedication.
tags: Biography
Mature Living: Remembering Dr. Lucy Scarbrough (EPCC-TV)
