Sibyl Marcuse (1911–2003)

Sibyl Marcuse was born in Frankfurt am Main to an English mother and Swiss father. With the outbreak of World War I in 1914, the family moved to Oxford, England. In 1920, they returned to Frankfurt, after which they settled for short periods in different places in Europe. Sibyl enjoyed the changes of location and had a talent for learning languages. She trained as a librarian in Brussels, which was her only formal qualification, and acquired an extensive general education and specialized musical instrumental knowledge on her own. She married a Belgian journalist whose surname she took, and lived with him in China from1932 to 1935. She then traveled in South America and then emigrated to the USA with the coming of World War II. She settled in New York City, where her language skills enabled her to quickly find work. She also studied at a piano tuning school and became a highly sought-after keyboard technician for professional musicians. In 1953, she was named curator of the Yale University Collection of Musical Instruments, where she worked until 1960. In 1964, she published the influential Musical Instruments: A Comprehensive Dictionary and A Survey of Musical Instruments in 1975.I n 1984, she received the Curt Sachs Award from the American Musical Instrument Society, given to those who have made a significant contribution to the goals of the society.