Gervase Elwes (singer)

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Gervase Elwes, 1918

Gervase Henry Elwes (born November 15, 1866 in Billing Hall , † January 12, 1921 in Boston ) was an English opera singer ( tenor ).

Elwes, who came from the English landed nobility, was in the diplomatic service from 1891 to 1895. After his training at the Oratory School in Birmingham and at Christ Church in Oxford, he was active as an amateur singer. From 1895 he studied singing with Désiré Demest in Brussels, with Henry Russell in London and Jacques Bouhy in Paris and made his debut in 1903 at the Westmoreland Festival in Kendal in Engelbert Humperdinck's trip to Kevelaer . He then continued his training with Victor Beigel in London. At other festivals he sang numerous new songs by Rebecca Clarke , Teresa del Riego and Irène de Poldowski .

In 1904 he sang the solo in The Dream of Gerontius by Edward Elgar for the first time under the direction of Felix Weingartner in London and has since been considered an unrivaled interpreter of this role. In the same year he gave a concert for the royal family at Windsor Castle. In 1905 he gave the world premiere of Roger Quilter's song cycle To Julia . During a concert tour with the pianist Fanny Davis , he was admired as an interpreter of Brahms songs in Berlin and Munich .

In 1909 Elwes was the interpreter of the world premiere of Ralph Vaughan Williams ' song cycle On Wenlock Edge . In the same year he had success with The Dream of Gerontius and recitals in New York and Boston. In 1914 he appeared in Amsterdam as an evangelist in Bach's St. Matthew Passion under the direction of Willem Mengelberg . In 1917 he gave a concert in front of Allied soldiers in France.

In the years 1920-21 Elwes again toured North America. He had great success with a performance at the Aeolian Hall in New York and gave a concert at Princeton University on January 11, 1921 . On his way to Harvard University , he was run over by a train the following day in Boston train station. In the same year his former teacher Beigel founded the Gervase Elwes Memory Fund (later The Musicians Benevolent Fund ) to promote young musicians. John Joseph Hahessy grew up among the descendants of Elwes and took the name John Joseph Elwes as a singer .

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