pianists

Homer Family This is a series of portraits of the family of composer Sidney Homer (1864-1953) and his wife contralto Louise Dilworth Homer née Beatty (1871-1947). Sidney Homer composed many of his songs with the voice of his famous wife in mind. Among his most famous songs are "A Banjo Song" (Weeden), "Requiem" (Stevenson), "Casey at the Bat" (Thayer), and "The House that Jack Built" ("Mother Goose.") Sidney was Louise's music theory teacher in Boston, MA. Louise Homer's European debut in 1898 was in Vichy, as Leonora in La Favorita, and in 1900 she made her American opera debut at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City singing Amneris in Verdi's Aida.  She sang at the Met for 19 consecutive seasons, often singing opposite such acclaimed singers as Enrico Caruso, Geraldine Farrar, and Ernestine Schumann-Heink.  Composer Samuel Barber was her nephew, and Louise performed several of his songs.  In 1923 and 1924 she was listed as one of the 12 greatest living women by the National League of Women Voters. They had six children, Louise Homer, Jr. (1896-1970) (Louise Homer Stires), son Sidney Homer, Jr. (1902-1983), twin daughters Anne Marie Homer (1907-1995) (Anne Homer Doerflinger) and Katharine Homer (1907-1997) ("Kay", Katharine Homer Fryer); and daughters Hester Makepeace Homer (b.1911) ("Miss Happy", Hester Homer Henry) and Helen Joy Homer (1915-1946) ("Joy", Joy Homer Doerflinger) There are currently 34 photographs of the Homer family in the Bain Collection on Flickr.  You can view them all here.   They were first identified by Art Siegel, B-59, pennylrichardsca (now at ipernity), Wystan, swanq, and Richard Norton.

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Sophie Braslau (1892-1935) was a contralto prominent in United States opera, starting with her debut in New York City's Metropolitan Opera in 1913 when she was just 21 years of age. [1] In her obituary The New York Times wrote, "The singer considered as her greatest triumph an experience during a rehearsal for a concert at Richmond, Va., where she had been sent to substitute for Mme. Louise Homer. After an introduction to the musicians in the empty auditorium, she sang an aria for rehearsal."

"I finished and there came a dead silence," she recalled later, "quickly followed by the strangest sound I had ever heard.  The musicians tapped their music stands with their bows or clapped their hands." In a few seconds it seemed as if pandemonium had let loose, and how happy I was! It was really the finest moment of my life. My mother was there, and it seemed to me that this was her triumph, for the evening concert was a great success and this was the first big joy she had experienced after her many years of devoted supervision."

(Many photographs of Mme. Homer can be seen in the LOC Bain Collection here.) There are currently nine photographs of Sophie Braslau in the LOC Bain Collection from c.1910-1915 here.)

This is a series of portraits of the family of composer Sidney Homer (1864-1953) and his wife contralto Louise Dilworth Homer née Beatty (1871-1947). Homer composed many of his songs with the voice of his famous wife in mind. Among his most famous songs are "A Banjo Song" (Weeden), "Requiem" (Stevenson), "Casey at the Bat" (Thayer), and "The House that Jack Built" ("Mother Goose.") Louise Homer made her American opera debut at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City in 1900 singing Amneris in Verdi's Aida. She sang at the Met for 19 consecutive seasons, often singing opposite such acclaimed singers as Enrico Caruso, Geraldine Farrar, and Ernestine Schumann-Heink. Composer Samuel Barber was her nephew. In 1923 and 1924 she was listed as one of the 12 greatest living women by the National League of Women Voters. They had six children, including twin daughters Anne Homer and Kathryn Homer, son Sidney Homer, Jr. (economist and author), and daughter Louise Homer.  [1] [2] There are currently 33 photographs of the Homer family in the Bain Collection on Flickr. You can view them all here. They were first identified by Art Siegel, B-59, pennylrichardsca (now at ipernity), Wystan, swanq, and Richard Norton.