Rachel Morton Harris
American soprano (1888–1982)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Rachel Emma Farra Morton Harris (September 11, 1888 – April 17, 1982) was an American concert and operatic soprano, active in the 1910s and 1920s. Later in life she was a music critic and voice teacher in Long Beach, California.
September 11, 1888
Rachel Morton Harris | |
|---|---|
Rachel Morton Harris, as photographed by Arnold Genthe | |
| Born | Rachel Emma Farra Morton September 11, 1888 Everett, Massachusetts, U.S. |
| Died | April 17, 1982 (age 93) Carmel, California, U.S. |
| Occupation | Soprano concert singer |
Early life and education
Morton was born in Everett, Massachusetts, the daughter of Frederick William Morton and Rose Valier Morton.[1][2] She graduated from Everett High School[3] and studied for a musical career in Berlin, and with Jean de Reszke at the American Conservatory in Fontainebleau.[4][5] One of her teachers, Isidore Luckstone, was also her accompanist.[6][7]
Career
Harris, a soprano, married Jaffrey Harris, a music professor at the Iowa State College,[8] and she performed a soloist there in 1916.[9][10] She gave her New York debut recital at Aeolian Hall in April 1919, demonstrating the "rich and luscious quality" of her voice as well as its "ample carrying power".[11] "Not often does a young singer make so definitely good a first impression as did Rachel Morton Harris at her debut," commented the Brooklyn Eagle about that performance.[6] She was a soloist in a 1920 performance of Handel's Elijah oratorio, along with Frieda Hempel and Merle Alcock, with the New York Symphony Orchestra and the New York Oratorio Society, conducted by Walter Damrosch.[12] She also sang at Boston's Jordan Hall in 1920.[13][14] In 1921 she was a soloist with the Ottawa Symphony,[15] sang in a program for the Beethoven Society with violinist Albert Vertchamp,[16] and gave a series of joint recitals with baritone Francis Rogers at Harvard, Princeton, and Yale.[17] In December 1921, she sang at Carnegie Hall.[18] and she sang again at the Town Hall in March 1922.[19]
She sang in operas in Europe and Great Britain for several seasons in the 1920s,[1][5][20] before returning to New York in 1928.[21] In 1930 she gave another recital at the Town Hall venue, with her husband as her accompanist.[22] In 1933 the Harrises performed at a musicale for the Bronxville Woman's Club,[23] and at a benefit concert for unemployed musicians in White Plains.[24] She gave another program for the Bronxville Woman's Club in 1935.[25]
In her later years, Morton was based in southern California,[26] where she continued to perform,[27][28] and was a music critic for the Long Beach Press-Telegram from 1956 to 1964.[29][30] She also taught voice students from her own studio, and at Long Beach State College.[31]