Rogers, Clara Kathleen (née Barnett)

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Rogers, Clara Kathleen (née Barnett)

Rogers, Clara Kathleen (née Barnett) , English-born American soprano, teacher, and composer; b. Cheltenham, Jan. 14, 1844; d. Boston, March 8, 1931. She was the daughter of the composer John Barnett. She studied at the Leipzig Cons. with Moscheles and Plaidy (piano), Papperitz and Richter (theory), and David and Rietz (ensemble playing), then singing with Goetz in Berlin and with Sangiovanni in Milan. She made her debut in Turin (1863) as Isabella in Robert le Diable (stage name, “Clara Doria”). She went to America in 1871 with the Parepa-Rosa Co., making her debut in N.Y. in The Bohemian Girl (Oct. 4, 1871). Having married a Boston lawyer, Henry M. Rogers, in 1878, she later settled in Boston as a teacher; from 1902, was a prof. of singing at the New England Cons. of Music. She publ. The Philosophy of Singing (1893), Dreaming True (1899), My Voice and I (1910), English Diction in Song and Speech (1912), The Voice in Speech (1915), and Memories of a Musical Career (Boston, 1919) and its sequel, The Story of Two Lives (Norwood, Mass., 1932). She composed a String Quartet (1866), a Violin Sonata (1903), a Cello Sonata, and many songs.

—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire

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Rogers, Clara Kathleen (née Barnett)

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