Adelaide Gescheidt Explained

Adelaide Gescheidt
Birth Name:Mary Adelaide Gescheidt
Birth Date:February 16, 1877
Birth Place:Mount Vernon, New York
Death Date:September 18, 1946 (aged 69)
Death Place:New York City
Occupation:Voice teacher, clubwoman

Mary Adelaide Gescheidt (February 16, 1877 – September 18, 1946) was an American voice teacher, writer, and clubwoman, based in New York City.

Early life

Gescheidt was born in Mount Vernon, New York, the daughter of Albert F. Gescheidt and Mary Steurer Gescheidt.[1] Her father was a businessman; all her grandparents were born in Germany.

Career

Gescheidt was a concert and church soprano in the early 20th century.[2] She studied singing with John Dennis Mehan[3] and Bruno Huhn.[4] The composer and pianist Edith Haines Kuester was her piano teacher and vocal coach.[5] In 1907-1908 she was the paid resident soprano soloist at Willis Avenue Methodist Episcopal Church in the Bronx.[6] In 1910 she performed Haines Kuester's song cycle In Helena's Garden (words by Richard Watson Gilder) in a concert performed at Crouse College during the convention of the New York State Music Teachers Association with the composer as her accompanist.[7]

Gescheidt injured her neck in a fall, ending her performing career.[8] After that, she was a vocal coach who worked with opera and concert singers from her studio at Carnegie Hall.[9] [10] Her specialty, advertised as "Miller Vocal Art-Science",[11] [12] involved training and rehabilitating speaking and singing voices damaged by injury, illness, or other defects,[13] in collaboration with throat specialist Frank E. Miller. She wrote about her work in a pamphlet[14] that later became a book, Make Singing a Joy (1930, with a foreword by musicologist Sigmund Spaeth). She emphasized that singing naturally, without excessive training or force, produces a pleasing sound and preserves the voice from strain.[15] [16] Her notable students included actress Betty Blythe[17] and oratorio singer Richard Crooks.[18]

Gescheidt was active in the National Federation of Music Clubs, especially on a committee to promote quality music in film scores.[19]

Personal life

Gescheidt died in a hospital in New York City in 1946, at the age of 69.

Notes and References

  1. News: 1946-09-20 . Mme. Adelaide Gescheidt; Voice Teacher Here for 35 Years Trained Concert Artists . en-US . The New York Times . 2022-07-02 . 0362-4331.
  2. News: 1909-05-28 . Twenty-Five Years Pastor . 1 . The Courier-News . 2022-07-03 . Newspapers.com.
  3. Mehan Studio Musicales. The Musical Courier. 25. May 20, 1903.
  4. Bruno Huhn To Teach in Los Angeles. Pacific Coast Musician. March 29, 1924. 10.
  5. Edith Haines Kuester. The Musical Courier. 11. December 23, 1908.
  6. Book: 113. The New York Church and Musical Directory of New York and Brooklyn and Other Adjacent Suburbs. William Grant James. 1908.
  7. News: Syracuse Post. June 27, 1910. 5. New York State Music Teachers Association.
  8. Book: Gescheidt . Adelaide . Make singing a joy . Gescheidt . Adelaide . 1930 . New York : R. L. Huntzinger, Inc. . Boston Public Library.
  9. May 17, 1923 . Extraordinary Showing for Miss Gescheidt . The Musical Leader . 45 . 471.
  10. 1920-09-16 . Adelaide Gescheidt Resumes Work . Musical Courier . 81 . 12 . 17 . Internet Archive.
  11. October 16, 1915 . Miller Vocal Art-Science (advertisement) . Musical America . 22 . 56.
  12. Gescheidt . Adelaide . September 12, 1918 . Singing and Breathing--Natural and Spontaneous . Musical Courier . 77 . 28.
  13. 1920-01-08 . Gescheidt Expounds Art-Science Principles . Musical Courier . 80 . 2 . 54 . Internet Archive.
  14. June 21, 1923 . 'Make Singing a Joy' Says Miss Gescheidt . Musical Leader . 45 . 595.
  15. 1934-10-06 . Art of Singing Is Viewed as Normal and Natural Process by Adelaide Gescheidt . Musical Courier . 109 . 29 . Internet Archive.
  16. 1942-03-05 . Voice Production Crux of Singer's Career, Says Teacher . Musical Courier . 125 . 5 . 13 . Internet Archive.
  17. June 21, 1923 . Betty Blythe to Sing in London . The Musical Leader . 45 . 582.
  18. December 7, 1922 . Laurels for Young Artist . Musical Courier . 85 . 63.
  19. News: 1940-04-10 . New Committee to be Headed by Mrs. Kelley . 6 . The Journal Herald . 2022-07-02 . Newspapers.com.