Helen Jepson - Hollis Dann Song Series @Pax41

897 views · Published 13 December 2009 · 3:20 · Indexed 20 September 2026

Channel: Pax41 Music Time Machine · 2009 · Music

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1930s classical music
Music in the 1930s

piano by Myrtle Eaver


Miss Jepson was born in Titusville, Pa., in 1904 and grew up in Akron, Ohio, where she studied voice and sang leading roles in high school productions of ''I Pagliacci'' and ''H.M.S. Pinafore.'' Using the money she saved from jobs in a church choir and at a record store, where she also listened closely to recordings by Rosa Ponselle and other stars of the day, she moved to Philadelphia to continue her studies at the Curtis Institute. While still a student, she sang with the Philadelphia Civic Opera, and organized a student troupe that spent a summer performing in small towns across the country. She made her debut with the Philadelphia Grand Opera Company in 1930.

Ms. Jepson's attractive lyric soprano, preserved on recordings of excerpts from Verdi's ''Otello,'' and her radiant good looks -- she had blond hair and dark eyes -- made her a favorite of opera fans who wanted to see an American soprano sing beside the more prominent European stars of the day.

songs: Comin Thro the Rye, Ring The Bells, Greeting to Spring, A Valentine, The Holly and the Ivy

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