╥Thursby, Emma Cecilia1845╨1931singer and educatorBorn in Williamsburg (now part of Brooklyn), New York, on February 21, 1845, Emma Thursby began singing in church at the age of five. Her musical training began at the Bethlehem Female Seminary in Pennsylvania in 1857, and in 1859 her schooling ended with a few months at a convent school in Brooklyn. In that year, her father having died and the family having fallen into financial difficulty, she began giving private music lessons. She continued her own vocal studies under Julius Meyer in 1867 and Achille Errani in 1871. She was a soloist in the choir of a local Dutch Reformed church in 1865╨1868 and in that of Henry Ward Beecher╒s Plymouth Church in 1868╨1871. At the same time she began appearing on local concert stages, and in April 1868 she took part in the Brooklyn Musical Association╒s performance of Haydn╒s Creation oratorio. She sang also with the Brooklyn and the Boston Handel and Haydn societies. In 1872╨1873 she studied under Francesco Lamperti and Antonio Sangiovanni in Milan, and in 1875 she became a pupil of Erminia Mansfield-Rudersdorff in New York. A concert performance with Patrick S. Gilmore╒s 22nd Regiment Band at the Philadelphia Academy of Music in November 1874 began Thursby╒s rise to national and international acclaim. She made a tour of several cities with Gilmore. A year later she appeared in a joint concert with Hans von Bƒlow at New York╒s Chickering Hall, and she toured California and appeared on the Redpath Lyceum circuit with Mark Twain in 1876. She was engaged by the Church of the Divine Paternity and then by the Broadway Tabernacle, but in 1877 she gave up church singing in favor of the concert stage; she never overcame her scruples against grand opera, however. Under the management of Maurice Strakosch she made a concert tour of the United States and Canada in 1877╨1878, and in May 1878 she made her London debut at St. James╒s Hall. She remained in Great Britain for nearly a year. She appeared at the ThÄëtre de Chëtelet in Paris in March 1879. After an American tour in 1879╨1880, during which she appeared with violinist Ole Bull, Thursby made a tour of Germany. In 1881 she was awarded the medal of the SociÄtÄ des Concerts of the Paris Conservatoire. Her European following was large and enthusiastic, attracted by a voice of bell-like clarity, flexibility, and remarkable range. After 1884 she appeared infrequently, and her last major performance occurred in Chicago in December 1895. She devoted herself thereafter to teaching, from 1905 to 1911 as professor of music at the Institute of Musical Art in New York City. Among her pupils was Geraldine Farrar. An invalid from 1924, she died in New York City on July 4, 1931. ■styl ` ! ¬ 5¬ 5¬ 5 !I r !I z !I t 5¬ u !I 5¬ !I
