Ellen Beach Yaw (September , â€" September , ) was an American
coloratura soprano, best known for her concert singing career and
extraordinary vocal range, and for originating the title role in
Arthur Sullivan's The Rose of Persia ().Yaw was born in the small town
of Boston, near Buffalo, New York (not Boston, Massachusetts, as is
often stated), the daughter of Ambrose Yaw, who manufactured cow and
sheep bells. Her family moved to Los Angeles when she was very young,
but her father died when she was a small child, and the family was
very poor.Yaw began singing and composing songs as a child. She
studied singing in America, first with her mother; then with Mrs.
Torpadie, the wife of tenor Theodore Bjorksten; and then with Ernesto
delle Salle. Yaw sang in concerts, beginning as a child in the s, to
make money to pay for singing lessons. Tours of the southern United
States, California, England, Switzerland, and Germany followed, and on
her return to America she gave a concert in Carnegie Hall in . Yaw
raised enough money through these concerts to study in Paris with
Mathilde Marchesi and later coached with Alberto Randegger. She also
sang several opera roles in the late s, including Ophelia in Ambroise
Thomas' Hamlet in Nice in . She became known for her extraordinary
vocal range and could produce unusually high notes. Known as "Lark
Ellen" or "The California Nightingale," she was reportedly the only
known soprano of her era who could sing and sustain the D above high
D. She was also able to trill in major thirds or fifths (trills
usually involve rapidly alternating notes over an interval of a minor
or major second).
coloratura soprano, best known for her concert singing career and
extraordinary vocal range, and for originating the title role in
Arthur Sullivan's The Rose of Persia ().Yaw was born in the small town
of Boston, near Buffalo, New York (not Boston, Massachusetts, as is
often stated), the daughter of Ambrose Yaw, who manufactured cow and
sheep bells. Her family moved to Los Angeles when she was very young,
but her father died when she was a small child, and the family was
very poor.Yaw began singing and composing songs as a child. She
studied singing in America, first with her mother; then with Mrs.
Torpadie, the wife of tenor Theodore Bjorksten; and then with Ernesto
delle Salle. Yaw sang in concerts, beginning as a child in the s, to
make money to pay for singing lessons. Tours of the southern United
States, California, England, Switzerland, and Germany followed, and on
her return to America she gave a concert in Carnegie Hall in . Yaw
raised enough money through these concerts to study in Paris with
Mathilde Marchesi and later coached with Alberto Randegger. She also
sang several opera roles in the late s, including Ophelia in Ambroise
Thomas' Hamlet in Nice in . She became known for her extraordinary
vocal range and could produce unusually high notes. Known as "Lark
Ellen" or "The California Nightingale," she was reportedly the only
known soprano of her era who could sing and sustain the D above high
D. She was also able to trill in major thirds or fifths (trills
usually involve rapidly alternating notes over an interval of a minor
or major second).
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