Molly Byerly Wilson

              1915

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Molly Byerly Wilson
Operatic and Concert Contralto
First Season After Seven Years in Europe
Available For

Opera
Concert
Recital
Oratorio
Festivals
Musicales


Management:
L. E. BEHYMER
Auditorium Building
Los Angeles, California

Personal Address:
1217 Arapahoe Street
Los Angeles, California
Phones 54036 West 3614



Molly Byerly Wilson
Dramatic Contralto
Molly Byerly Wilson, gifted and artistic contralto singer, recently returned from seven years of study and travel in Europe.  Miss Wilson early displayed the unusual quality of her beautiful voice, and for several years studied with prominent Los Angeles teachers, and was a church soloist of great success.  Then followed her long residence abroad, where the best training of German teachers in Leipzig and Berlin brought the natural beauty of her voice to a wonderful artistic perfection.  She studied for Italian and German opera, German Lieder singing, and concert repertoire, and was to make her debut in German opera, when the outbreak of the European war terminated her plans and necessitated her return to her home in Los Angeles.

Miss Wilson's voice is a rich dramatic alto, of exceptionally beautiful quality, and of unusual range and variety of color, combining qualities of a true contralto with the range and dramatic intensity of a mezzo-soprano.  Her voice is equally adapted to opera, concert, or oratorio work.

Miss Wilson speaks German with the same fluency and ease as English, and as a German Lieder singer her interpretation is most artistic.

That critics abroad have been enthusiastic in their praise of Miss Wilson's voice, and that her home public in Los Angeles at once proclaimed her an artist of the first rank, is attested by the following comments:




Press Comments of German Critics

CHICAGO MUSICAL LEADER (Leipzig):
Miss Wilson has a grand organlike voice, admirably suited to oratorio, but she is not limited to oratorio singing.  I have not heard any contralto voice in Leipzig in any way comparable to this young woman's in quality, quantity or character.


NEW YORK MUSICAL COURIER (Leipzig):
Miss Wilson's voice is of exceptional volume and exceptional beauty.  In addition to her great low tones, her high voice is easily produced in warmth, volume and thrilling intensity.
Miss Wilson's contralto is a very valuable voice, of great richness in the lower registers, with extreme vitality and heroic character and beauty in the high tones.



CONTINENTAL TIMES (Berlin):
Miss Wilson has a remarkably fine contralto voice, which was heard to great advantage in the aria from Samson and Delilah and two songs.
Miss Wilson is the happy possessor of a rich dramatic alto.
Molly Byerly Wilson's beautiful contralto was heard in the difficult aria, Ihr Baal's Priester from Meyerbeer's Prophet, and in three English songs.  Her interpretation was most artistic.




PACIFIC COAST MUSICIAN, Los Angeles:
Miss Molly Byerly Wilson, in a recital January 28, establishes herself as one of the most satisfying and delightful exponents of the art of singing.  She showed a voice of rare beauty, whose splendid placement permitted the production of upper tones with the ease and clarity of intonation of a mezzo-soprano and lower tones of a contralto's fullness and richness—a voice which, throughout its compass, falls pleasurably upon the ear.
Miss Wilson's interpretations are doubly satisfying, for she also brings to her work a keenly intelligent understanding of the spirit of the matter in hand and possesses the artistic discrimination and temperament to reproduce as well as to grasp.—February, 1915.
In the varied repertoire already presented here, this artist has shown a voice of unusual range, with the scale delicately equalized.—March, 1915.
Her satisfying, finely artistic work met the same appreciative response from the audience at the Athalie performance which it received on the earlier occasion.—April, 1915.
Miss Wilson's unaffected, unspoiled personality, as well as her artistry and pleasing vocal qualifications, has doubtless materially assisted in winning her the large measure of popularity she enjoys.—April, 1915.



CHICAGO MUSIC NEWS (Los Angeles):
Miss Molly Byerly Wilson displayed a voice of excellent power and quality, well placed and under fine control.  She lists herself as a contralto, but has a compass which would enable her to do fine work in the songs for a dramatic mezzo-soprano.  She is especially satisfying in her English diction and clear in foreign texts.—February 19, 1915.


NEW YORK MUSICAL AMERICA (Los Angeles):
Molly Byerly Wilson, contralto, sings with a delightful tone quality and control, and with an unusually good enunciation.—February 13, 1915.



NEW YORK MUSICAL COURIER (Los Angeles):
Miss Wilson's voice is a rarely beautiful contralto of great warmth and range, and she is endowed with a most attractive personality which reflects the qualities of her voice.  Her program covered a wide range and displayed the qualities of her voice to good advantage.  The operatic aria gave great scope to her range and dramatic gifts.
—February 17, 1915.
Molly Byerly Wilson, contralto, sang before the Gamut Club and the Dominant Club, on both occasions deepening the impressions she had already made with her exquisite voice and charming personality.  —February 24, 1915.
Miss Wilson is delighting critical and discriminating audiences with her beautiful contralto voice.
—April 7, 1915.



THE GERMANIA, LOS ANGELES: (Translations from the German)
Miss Wilson possesses a fine dramatic contralto voice, of wide range and great variety of color.  She has a splendid technic, her tone production and control deserving special praise.  Her pronunciation of the German is unusually fine, as is also her interpretation of German songs.
—January 29, 1915.
An artist whose appearance in the concert of the Los Angeles Oratorio Society attracted much attention, and who was most enthusiastically received, is Miss Molly Byerly Wilson, a contralto of rare ability, whose voice shows splendid training, as well as natural power and beauty.  Her interpretations are full of inspiration, while also carefully worked out, without affectation or exaggeration.  Miss Wilson enters into the spirit of the German lied in a manner deserving special mention.
—March 30, 1915.




LOS ANGELES DAILY TIMES:
Molly Byerly Wilson sang a varied program, made up of opera arias in Italian, German lieder, and songs by American composers.  The singer's voice is classed as a contralto, though it has a richness of quality and a fullness of quantity in the upper tones that a dramatic soprano might envy.  Her singing was a decided pleasure throughout the program, especially so in the aria from Verdi's Don Carlo.
—January 29, 1915.
The principal solo part is in the hands of Molly Byerly Wilson, a dramatic mezzo-contralto of the first rank, whose consummate art has deeply impressed critics and connoisseurs who attended her recent recital.
—February 28, 1915.
Preceding the presentation of Athalie, Molly Byerly Wilson gave a pleasing program of Italian, German and English songs.  Her contralto voice reveals richness of tone and good control, especially in the higher register.  Her conceptions of the musical value of her songs are generally satisfying.  She appeared to advantage in the oratorio.  —March 18, 1915.
Molly Byerly Wilson recently appeared with the Congregational Church Orchestra, and greatly pleased her audience with her selections.  She was in excellent voice, and revealed breadth and power in her singing, as well as good, clear enunciation.  —April 15, 1915.



LOS ANGELES EVENING HERALD:
Miss Wilson possesses a voice of a brilliancy that warrants the term dramatic contralto.  A rich, full-throated and freely delivered tone characterizes her singing, and to this she adds an unusually intelligent understanding of her text, which makes her an ideal recitalist.
—January 29, 1915.




LOS ANGELES DAILY EXAMINER:
Molly Byerly Wilson sang at the Gamut Club, pleasing a critical audience with her dramatic rendering of Verdi's O Don Fatale.  At the Dominant Club Miss Wilson gave six numbers from the German lied, and again before a large and appreciative audience proved herself distinctly artistic and pleasing.  Her beautiful German diction, with her sympathetic interpretation of the German lieder, made her singing a delight.
—February 14, 1915.
Her beautiful dramatic voice and consummate art have already won for her a foremost place with local critics.
—March 7, 1915.



LOS ANGELES EVENING EXPRESS:
Her contralto voice was pronounced luscious in quality, and in addition she was acclaimed a singer of understanding and feeling.
—January 29, 1915.
Miss Wilson, the principal soloist, was immediately acclaimed an artist of the first rank.  —March 13, 1915.



LOS ANGELES DAILY TRIBUNE:
The contralto soloist, Miss Wilson, received the highest encomiums of critical hearers and is conceded a place in the front rank of dramatic contraltos.
—March 14, 1915.



THE GRAPHIC, LOS ANGELES:
Her voice is a rich, well-placed contralto, with a pronounced dramatic mezzo-soprano quality.  Her singing ranks her among the best exponents of the vocal art.
—January 30, 1915.
Opening the program was a song recital by Molly Byerly Wilson.  These numbers illustrated the old Italian opera, the modern opera, the German lied and the American art song.  Miss Wilson was in excellent voice and added no small amount to her growing reputation.
—March 20, 1915.





Appreciations
It is a long and laborious process to mould a human voice, no matter how precious, into the flexible, resonant instrument which Miss Wilson exhibits on the concert stage.  And how few of our would-be artists have taken the infinite trouble of building up and accumulating, under the influence of different climates, countries, national traditions, and masters of various schools, the vast storage of artistic resourcefulness which enables Miss Wilson to present an entire program in such masterly and convincing manner.  Only on rare occasions is one privileged to enjoy an artistic feast of such consummate finish of taste as Miss Wilson spread before her guests.  And seldom, among the countless artists and would-be artists, does one meet with a personality of such sterling worth and wholesomeness.

(Signed) F. BRUESCHWEILER,
Conductor Los Angeles Oratorio Society.

LOS ANGELES,
April 8, 1915.