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American guitarist Vahdah Olcott Bickford (1885- 1980), one of the primary exponents of classical guitar in the United States during the twentieth century, was one of the main forces behind the establishment of classical guitar institutions in America. She was a founding member of the American Guitar Society (AGS) and the Guitar Foundation of America, dedicating her life to the promotion of the classical guitar.
Olcott Bickford was born on October 17, 1885, in Norwalk, Ohio. Her birth name was Ethel Lucretia Olcott, and at the age of two her family moved to New Mexico, finally settling in Los Angeles when she was three years old. According to Ronald Purcell, Olcott Bickford began her studies when she was eight years old, meeting George C. Lindsey (1855-1943) at the age of nine. Lindsey was a local guitar shop owner, teacher, and director of the G.C. Lindsey's Mandolin and Guitar Club of Los Angeles. The two forged a student-teacher relationship that would last until Lindsey's death in 1943. Olcott Bickford became involved with guitar clubs and began playing in guitar ensembles as a member of the G.C. Lindsey's Mandolin and Guitar Club, and Lindsey introduced Olcott Bickford to Mexican American guitarist Manuel Ygnacio Ferrer. She studied with Ferrer during her childhood, and in 1903-04 she was invited to live at the Ferrer residence in the San Francisco Bay area to study daily with the maestro. Upon Ferrer's death, Olcott Bickford returned to Los Angeles, publishing her first musical arrangement in 1905 with the George J. Birkel Company.1
During her 1913 tour of the Midwest, Olcott met Myron A. Bickford, renowned mandolinist, director of the Cleveland Mandolin Orchestra, and active member of the American Guild of Banjoists, Mandolinists and Guitarists (BMG Guild). By November of that year, they formed a duo known as The Bickford-Olcott Duettists, playing concerts in Ohio and meeting once more in 1914 at the BMG Guild's national convention. Toward the end of 1914, Olcott Bickford and Myron A. Bickford moved to New York City, where they established their teaching studios, got married, and changed their names. Myron became Zarh and Ethel became Vahdah; these names were chosen in connection to their interest in astrology. The Bickford's were happily married until Zarh's death in 1963....