Clara Kathleen Barnett Rogers (January 14, 1844 – March 8, 1931), was an English-born American composer, singer, writer and music educator.

Early life and education

Rogers was born in

Cheltenham Cheltenham (), also known as Cheltenham Spa, is a spa town and borough on the edge of the Cotswolds in the county of Gloucestershire, England. Cheltenham became known as a health and holiday spa town resort, following the discovery of mineral s ...

, England, into a musical family. Her grandfather,

Robert Lindley Robert Lindley (4 March 1776 – 13 June 1855) was an English cellist and academic, described as "probably the greatest violoncellist of his time". Life Lindley was born in Rotherham in 1776. His father, an amateur cellist, gave him lessons on th ...

, was a cellist; her father, John Barnett, was an opera composer and was the first music teacher his children had; her mother, Eliza, was a singer. At the age of twelve, her family moved to Germany to further the musical education of the children. Clara was denied acceptance to the Leipzig Conservatory, but that decision was changed in 1857 in view of her talent, making her the youngest student ever admitted. Two of her siblings also attended the conservatory. During this time, her father returned to England while her mother stayed with her children, a trend that continued throughout the early part of Rogers's career. While at Leipzig, Rogers studied the piano, harmony, part writing, violin, cello, and voice. Although composition classes were not open to women at the conservatory when she first attended, the administration made a composition class for girls in 1859, after hearing the

string quartet The term string quartet can refer to either a type of musical composition or a group of four people who play them. Many composers from the mid-18th century onwards wrote string quartets. The associated musical ensemble consists of two violinists ...

Rogers had composed at the age of 13. Her classmate,

Arthur Sullivan Sir Arthur Seymour Sullivan (13 May 1842 – 22 November 1900) was an English composer. He is best known for 14 comic opera, operatic Gilbert and Sullivan, collaborations with the dramatist W. S. Gilbert, including ''H.M.S. Pinaf ...

, copied orchestra parts for her, found players and arranged a performance of the piece. Rogers spent three years at the conservatory, graduating at sixteen with honors.

Career and later years

Rogers chose to pursue a vocal career and became an opera singer. Using the pseudonym Clara Doria, she debuted in 1863 in Turin, Italy, in a performance of '' Robert le diable'' by

Giacomo Meyerbeer Giacomo Meyerbeer (born Jakob Liebmann Beer; 5 September 1791 – 2 May 1864) was a German opera composer, "the most frequently performed opera composer during the nineteenth century, linking Mozart and Wagner". With his 1831 opera ''Robert le di ...

. After touring in Italy and five years in London as a concert singer, she came to United States in 1871 as a member of the Parepa-Rosa Opera Company and spent another seven years as a singer with at least three different troupes. Her singing career ended in 1878 when she married Henry Munroe Rogers, a lawyer living in Boston, Massachusetts. In Boston, Rogers had many artistic friends, such as Amy Beach,

Margaret Ruthven Lang Margaret Ruthven Lang (November 27, 1867 – May 29, 1972) was an American composer, affiliated with the Second New England School. Lang was also one of the first two women composers (along with Amy Beach) to have compositions performed by Amer ...

, George Chadwick,

Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. (March 8, 1841 – March 6, 1935) was an American jurist and legal scholar who served as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1902 to 1932.Holmes was Acting Chief Justice of the Un ...

, Amy Lowell, and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. Longfellow wrote the poem “Stay at Home, My Heart, and Rest” especially for Rogers. She held weekly at her home and helped to promote the careers of her artistic friends. During her marriage, Rogers took up teaching and composing, which she said was “a supreme delight – amounting at times almost to intoxication!” By the early 1880s, she had begun publishing some of her songs with the Arthur P. Schmidt company. In 1888, she helped found the Boston Manuscript Club and was invited to join the Manuscript Club of New York in 1895 by Amy Beach. Although she had rejected a teaching position there in the past, Rogers joined the faculty of the

New England Conservatory The New England Conservatory of Music (NEC) is a private music school in Boston, Massachusetts. It is the oldest independent music conservatory in the United States and among the most prestigious in the world. The conservatory is located on Hu ...

in 1902, where she taught voice and began to write on music. Her literary works (see below) include six books on diction and technique and three autobiographies. She died in 1931 in Boston. Her correspondences and manuscripts are kept at the Harvard University Library.

Musical output

*Around 100 songs *Four piano works *Two string quartets *Sonata for violin and piano *Sonata for cello and piano

Other publications

*''The Philosophy of Singing'', published in 1893 *''My Voice and I'', published in 1910 *''English Diction in Song and Speech'', published in 1912 *''Memories of a Musical Career'', published in 1919/1920 *''The Voice in Speech'', published in 1915 *''Your Voice and You'', published in 1925 *''Clearcut Speech in Song'', published in 1927 *''The Story of Two Lives'', published in 1932 *''Journal-Letters from the Orient'', published in 1934

Discography

*''Women at an Exposition: Music Composed by Women and Performed at the 1893 World's Fair in Chicago''. Susanne Mentzer, mezzo-soprano; Sunny Joy Langton, soprano; Elaine Skorodin, violin; Kimberly Schmidt, piano. Koch International Classics 3-7240-2H1, 1993.

References

External links

Books by Clara Kathleen Rogers
(at the Internet Archive) * {{DEFAULTSORT:Rogers, Clara 1844 births 1931 deaths British emigrants to the United States American composers American women composers American opera singers American women singers American music educators American women music educators Classical musicians from Massachusetts Singers from Boston Musicians from Cheltenham University of Music and Theatre Leipzig alumni