Estella Louise Mann (November 1, 1871 – August 20, 1947) was an American singer, recording artist, and record executive active in New York in the 1890s. She was one of the first women to make a living as a recording artist, and the first woman to run a record company.

Biography

Mann was born on November 1, 1871 in Nashville, Tennessee, to Eugene and Maria Mann. She studied vocal performance with Tino Mattioli at the College of Music of Cincinnati in the early 1890s, gaining a certificate in 1893 and a diploma in 1894. She toured briefly as a soloist with

Sousa's Band John Philip Sousa ( ; November 6, 1854 – March 6, 1932) was an American composer and conductor of the late Romantic era known primarily for American military marches. He is known as "The March King" or the "American March King", to dist ...

then moved to

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

to sing for concerts and opera. At the time, New York was the center of a boom of independent record companies supplying musical records for

phonograph A phonograph, in its later forms also called a gramophone (as a trademark since 1887, as a generic name in the UK since 1910) or since the 1940s called a record player, or more recently a turntable, is a device for the mechanical and analogu ...

s and

graphophone The Graphophone was the name and trademark of an improved version of the phonograph. It was invented at the Volta Laboratory established by Alexander Graham Bell in Washington, D.C., United States. Its trademark usage was acquired successively ...

s, which were just beginning to be sold for home listening (rather than phonograph parlors). In early 1898 she and her singing partner John C. Havens formed the Lyric Phonograph Company. The company showcased records of the Lyric Trio (of Mann, Havens, and bass

William F. Hooley William F. Hooley (16 April 1861 – 12 October 1918) was a British-born American bass singer and pioneer recording artist who was popular as a solo singer, as a monologist, and as a member of several of the most successful vocal groups of ...

) singing

opera Opera is a form of theatre in which music is a fundamental component and dramatic roles are taken by singers. Such a "work" (the literal translation of the Italian word "opera") is typically a collaboration between a composer and a librett ...

comic opera Comic opera, sometimes known as light opera, is a sung dramatic work of a light or comic nature, usually with a happy ending and often including spoken dialogue. Forms of comic opera first developed in late 17th-century Italy. By the 1730s, a ne ...

and

concert A concert is a live music performance in front of an audience. The performance may be by a single musician, sometimes then called a recital, or by a musical ensemble, such as an orchestra, choir, or band. Concerts are held in a wide variety a ...

solos, duets and trios. By September of the same year, the company had begun shipping records abroad, had begun recording other artists such as Joseph Weber and Jack Simonds, and had opened a branch office in San Francisco. The company moved to an expanded headquarters in early 1899 and added band, violin, organ, mandolin and other types of records to their catalog throughout the year. The Lyric Phonograph Co. was still advertising in Phonoscope through May 1900, but

Harry Macdonough John Scantlebury Macdonald (May 30, 1871 – September 26, 1931) was a Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most ...

had replaced Havens as tenor and Grace Spencer had replaced Mann as soprano. The boom of independent phonograph companies had largely bust as

Edison Thomas Alva Edison (February 11, 1847October 18, 1931) was an American inventor and businessman. He developed many devices in fields such as electric power generation, mass communication, sound recording, and motion pictures. These invention ...

and Columbia streamlined and expanded record manufacture and regained control of this aspect of the industry. Mann recorded 13 disc sides for the

Berliner Berliner is most often used to designate a citizen of Berlin, Germany Berliner may also refer to: People * Berliner (surname) Places * Berliner Lake, a lake in Minnesota, United States * Berliner Philharmonie, concert hall in Berlin, Germany ...

and

Zonophone Zonophone (early on also rendered as Zon-O-Phone) was a record label founded in 1899 in Camden, New Jersey, by Frank Seaman. The Zonophone name was not that of the company but was applied to records and machines sold by Seaman's Universal Talki ...

companies in 1899 and 1900, then returned to touring, singing opera with Eugenia Mantelli's Grand Opera Company, and singing comic opera and vaudeville. Mann retired from performance "in her early thirties" (approximately 1905) according to her brother William, whom Jim Walsh interviewed in 1950 for an article in "Favorite Pioneer Recording Artists". She cared for her aging mother in

Evansville, Indiana Evansville is a city in, and the county seat of, Vanderburgh County, Indiana, United States. The population was 118,414 at the 2020 census, making it the state's third-most populous city after Indianapolis and Fort Wayne, the largest city in ...

, then died decades later at her brother's house in the same town, though nothing is said about her life in the intervening years. Lyric Trio

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mann, Estella Louise American sopranos 19th-century American women singers 19th-century American singers 20th-century American women singers 20th-century American singers Pioneer recording artists American music industry executives 1871 births 1947 deaths

Biography

See also

References