Introduction

Biography

Sylvia was the daugh­ter of Jo­seph C. Born­tra­ger and Eli­za­beth Hartz­ler.

She began teach­ing at age 17, and en­tered Go­shen College in the win­ter of 1905–6.

Also in 1906, she ac­cepted Christ, and be­came a mem­ber of the Men­non­ite church.

Sylvia start­ed her mu­sic studies at Go­shen in 1907, and ev­en­tu­al­ly worked as an as­sist­ant in the col­lege’s mu­sic de­part­ment. She gra­du­at­ed from Go­shen in June, 1911.

She joined the Go­shen fa­cul­ty that year and, after teach­ing three sessions, en­tered the New Eng­land Con­ser­va­to­ry of Mu­sic, gra­du­at­ing in 1916.