The chorus of 100-plus voices rising in celebration of the world’s creation on May 4 will also sing in tribute to a woman who ushered more than a generation of metro Jackson singers and pianists to a lifelong love of music.
In its final concert of the season, the Mississippi Chorus performs Haydn’s choral masterwork, “The Creation,” at 7:30 p.m. May 4 at the Gertrude C. Ford Academic Complex on the Millsaps College campus. The concert is presented in memory of Frances Rose Price Cox of Madison, longtime colleague, mentor, music teacher and community leader.
“The Creation,” Haydn’s depiction of the world’s creation as described in Genesis, will feature professional soloists and members of the Mississippi Symphony Orchestra. The triumphant and life-affirming work is a cornerstone of choral music. It’s been nearly 15 years since the Chorus has presented the full version of this late 18th century masterpiece, in all its Viennese glory, in Jackson.
Cox (1926-2018), an active member of Madison United Methodist Church for more than 75 years, also served as its pianist and organist/choir director for 30 years. She subsequently served as organist/choir director at Briarwood United Methodist Church for 12 years. She was married to L.H. Cox Jr., a former mayor of Madison whose pioneer family’s roots in the town date to 1861.
Cox taught private piano and choral music and piano in Madison and Ridgeland schools, grades one through 12, and led award-winning ensembles in competition. “She was always teaching. She taught music from seven in the morning to seven at night, to kids throughout the community,” her son, L. Henry Cox III, now of Southampton,N.Y., recalls. “One of her most famous students is Faith Hill. Mom gave Faith Hill her first lead in a musical,” he says, as Tom Sawyer’s mother when the country music star was just a fifth grader. “My mom said even then, she knew the kid was stellar.”
Longtime Mississippi Chorus member Gwen Anderson of Ridgeland has fond memories of piano lessons at Cox’s Madison home, and in the choir at Madison-Ridgeland School. “She was a wonderful piano teacher. …She expected a lot out of her students and that also made us want to do more.”
Anderson loved to sing as a child, but was shy, with audience limited to family until, “At one of my piano lessons, and I must have been maybe 13 or so … and she said, ‘Why don’t you sing along with this?’ I was mortified. I thought, ‘I am not singing for Mrs. Cox. I just don’t think I can do that!’” But, she tried. “That was my first introduction to trying to sing — I mean, in front of anybody.’” High school choir really sparked her confidence. At a choral festival, Cox nudged her again, asking her to play an autoharp. “She asked me, of all people … It was a pretty big deal to me, and made me feel real special.
“I have a deep gratitude to her, for teaching me to play the piano, and for the choir — just for giving me that love of music. I feel like she was a big part of that.”
Cox “was an extraordinary talent herself,” says Helen Bruce “Brucie” Broockmann of Madison — able to mount “Paint Your Wagon” at a small school, Madison-Ridgeland High. That was 1966, as she recalls, when Cox had a trio of student singers who could carry the leads, dance training help from Millsaps and a high standard of excellence to pull it off. “She gave us so much beyond public school music. … She was just a tremendously devoted, sensitive teacher.” Cox was a gifted musician, too, able to embellish and extemporize on the spot.
“She just made a great difference in a small community — Madison and Ridgeland, at that time,” Broockmann says. “There was not a great deal available, but she certainly furthered our knowledge and appreciation of music, just enormously.”
A real innovator, Cox started a music history class in the high school in the mid-1960s. “We were listening to Wagner and all the operas,” Henry Cox says. “We had a textbook that started with primitive music and went all the way to Leonard Bernstein. So, for a whole year, we were studying and listening to all this music. People don’t do that anymore!”
The concert’s location at Millsaps College also resonates. “Our whole family’s been to Millsaps,” Henry Cox says. “These young kids email me every now and then, ‘You know, the experience that I had with your mom, I never had before or will never have again.’ And, I think a lot of it stems from Millsaps. She was inspired by Millsaps, for excellence.”
Along that line, Mississippi Chorus’ community partnership with Magnolia Speech School is another way the nonprofit reaches out to youth and fulfills its motto, “Music changes everything.”
In honor of his mother’s love of music, Henry Cox now commissions new music compositions and underwrites concerts in Mississippi (including this one by the Mississippi Chorus and one coming in September by the Mississippi Chambre Music Guild), New York City, Southampton, and Chelsea, Michigan.
“Mom sought to teach young people about the joy of listening to classical music. Hopefully, all of our efforts can contribute to her legacy.”
For tickets and more details on the Mississippi Chorus’ May 4 concert of Haydn’s “The Creation” at Millsaps College’s Ford Academic Complex Recital Hall, visit mschorus.org. Tickets are $20 adults, $5 students online and at the door; it’s free for children 12 and younger.
