Frances Chen Russell was born in Kampar, a tiny town near Kuala
Lumpur. Her early childhood memory consisted mainly of living
under the Japanese occupation
After the war, the family lived in Nanking, Shanghai and Foochow,
but she grew up mainly in Singapore, having attended Chinese schools.
People are often surprised that she speaks Chinese.
A pianist and accompanist, Frances received two music degrees
from the University of Michigan She was a music professor at Tougaloo
College (Mississippi) in the mid-sixties before her doctoral studies
in ethnomusicology at Brown University, where she taught music
theory. She is currently completing an annotated English translation
of a classic Chinese musicology text.
In 1970 she married David Williams Russell, a Woodrow Wilson
Fellow and college administrator (now lawyer) she met at Tougaloo.
Her Chicago-born son Bayard, 1979 and Ming, 1981 graduated from
Dartmouth College, 2001, and New York University, 2003 respectively,
and now work in New York and in San Diego, respectively.
The Russell family all had been staunch supporters of IACA since
they moved to Carmel in 1983. She now coordinates the Lion Dance
Team. All of Frances' other volunteer work is diversity or music
related.
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