Born on May 11, 1884, in Iasi, Rumania, Reba Fiersohn was the daughter of Russian Jewish parents. In 1890 an elder sister who had gone to America brought over their widowed mother and the rest of the family. Reba grew up on the Lower East Side of New York City, attended public schools through high school, and then worked as a stenographer until her marriage in May 1902 to Bernard Glick. Although hers was a musical family, she had had no formal training in music in childhood. By the age of twenty, however, she had studied piano for some years and was herself giving lessons. In 1906 she began voice lessons under Arturo Buzzi-Peccia. He arranged for her to audition for Arturo Toscanini, and in 1909 she was engaged by the Metropolitan Opera Company. Under the name Alma Gluck she made her debut at the Met in November 1909 in the role of Sophie in Massenet╒s Werther. A month later she attracted considerable attention for her singing of the Happy Shade in Gluck╒s Orfeo ed Euridice, a production that starred Louise Homer.
Over the next three years Gluck sang a wide variety of lyric soprano roles, but opera proved less interesting to her than the recital stage. Her popular performances at the Metropolitan╒s Sunday evening concerts led to other concert engagements, and at the expiration of her contract with the Met in 1912 she left the operatic stage. She was divorced from her husband in that year. (Their daughter Abigail later became a well-known writer under the name Marcia Davenport.) She then sought further training in Europe, where she was probably the first American singer to arrive with an established reputation based on training primarily in America. She studied with Jean de Reszke for a time and was one of Marcella Sembrich╒s first pupils. In London in June 1914 she married violinist Efrem Zimbalist. (Their son, Efrem Zimbalist, Jr., later became a noted actor.)
Until 1920 Glick toured the United States regularly, making eighty to a hundred concert appearances annually. She was in great demand as an oratorio and festival performer as well, and she and her husband frequently appeared in joint recitals. Her popularity was matched by few other singers, as her voice, her grace, and her dark beauty gave her a commanding stage presence. Her programs ranged from lieder to American folk ballads, and she was equally popular as a recording artist for the Victor Talking Machine Company. Her recording of ╥Carry Me Back to Old Virginny╙ sold nearly 2 million copies. After 1920 she reduced her concert work sharply to devote time to her family, and she gave her last public performance in 1925 at the Manhattan Opera House. Other activities that engaged her at various times included helping found the Musical Art Quartet in 1926, the American Woman╒s Association in 1928, and the American Guild of Musical Artists in 1934. She died in New York City on October 27, 1938.
