AtDtDA23: Two Local Reps

[robinlandseadel at comcast.net]

Kathleen Ferrier leaps to mind:

Kathleen Ferrier was born on April 22, 1912, in a Lancashire 
village in the north of Enland. Despite the limited financial 
means of the household, her mother insisted that Kathleen 
should have a proper education. Very early on, she became 
fascinated by the piano. Although a very bright student, she 
seemed to go on to university, but unfortunately, funds were 
lacking and she had to leave school at the age of 14 to start 
work as a telephone operator. As a pianist she participated 
in the many local festivals and won numerous prizes. Very 
soon, she accompanied her singing friends. In 1935 Ferrier 
married  and the couple moved to Carlisle (the marriage 
turned out to be an unhappy one and was later annulled). 
It was her husband who challenged her to enter the Carlisle 
Festival for singing. After winning both the piano and singing 
prizes there in 1937, she decided to work as a professional 
singer, learning by appearing wherever she was asked. She 
studied with J.E. Hutchinson, who built her repertoire (songs 
by Purcell, Bach’s B minor Mass and Passions according to 
Saint John and Saint Matthew, excerpts from cantatas, 
Italian arias, oratorios by Handel and Elgars’ The Dream of 
Gerontius). She continued her studies with Roy Henderson, 
a former baritone and dedicated teacher who also introduced 
her to German songs. Within a short time Kathleen Ferrier 
became one of the world’s leading concert artists. . . ..

http://tinyurl.com/4l3ey
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"a smooth contralto"

The lowest female voice usually about F below the treble clef to D in
the treble clef. This term is sometimes used to distinguish
specifically the female alto as opposed to a male countertenor with an
alto range.

http://www.music.vt.edu/musicdictionary/textc/Contralto.html

In music, an alto or contralto is a singer with a vocal range
somewhere in between a tenor and a mezzo-soprano. The term is used to
refer to the lowest female singing voice....

[...]

The word "contralto" can be used to refer specifically to a female
alto singer, versus alto male singers or instruments or clefs....

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alto