Three centuries of american ballads: in costume

              Three Centuries of American Ballads

IN COSTUME
BY 
Mrs. Hollingsworth - Watkins

ASSISTED BY 
Miss Lois Louise Davidson Piano Soloist
Miss Florence Mills 'Cello Soloist


Figure

MRS. HOLLINGSWORTH-WATKINS



Each Member of the Company an Artist. A Program combining the Artistic and the Popular




EXCLUSIVE DIRECTION



FRANK A. MORGAN
 
Manager Musical Artists
 SUITE 55, AUDITORIUM BUILDING CHICAGO





Figure
MISS LOIS LOUISE DAVIDSON.


CHICAGO, NOV
. 28, '04.




After having had the pleasure of teaching many talented and advanced pupils, some of whom have become famous, it gives me the greatest pleasure to be able to state that Miss Lois Davidson stands in the very front rank with the most gifted young music students to be found anywhere.  Her temperament, intelligence, rare taste, excellent technic and range throughout are such as to promise splendid things for her future.



WILLIAM H. SHERWOOD
.




Miss Davidson proved herself a marvelous pianist, masterpiece after masterpiece being given with ease, brilliancy, purity of tone and exquisite interpretation.—


Dwight Herald.



Judged in the order of its relative musical importance, one might say the piano took rank, the violin next, and then the voice.  Speaking of the performance, however, it would be safe to say they were equally meritorious unless we are forgiven the sentiment in favor of Miss Davidson.  After hearing the master pianists of the day, and then being enchanted by a girl of eighteen, and that at a Liszt program, too, one may be pardoned for excessive enthusiasm.  She played with a success that betokened the power not only to reproduce in the sense of performing a given composition, but of re-creating it so that even the composer might discover new possibilities in his own work—Schuman acknowledged this to Liszt once—and Liszt was a colossus.—


Musical Etude.



Miss Davidson plays brilliantly and with delicacy.  She has a great grasp of the mental and physical requirements of piano playing.  Her entire program, which required the strength and power of a virtuoso to render, was given with distiuct[sicdistinct] success.
—
Morning Musical Club, Ft. Wayne Journal-Gazette.



Chopin and Liszt lived again last evening in Miss Lois Davidson, the gifted young pianist, and passed away only when the sound of melody ceased and the talented young virtuoso bowed her good-night to the enthusiastic audience.—


Graphic Sentinel, Lake City, Minn.





The Evening Wisconsin, Jan. 25, '05.


The program, 
Three Centuries of American Ballads,
 given by W. C. E. Seeboeck, of Chicago, pianist, and Mrs. Hollingsworth-Watkins, a New York soprano whose lovely voice and charming personality made a lasting impression upon those so fortunate to hear her when she sang before the Woman's Club last year, was worthy the artists that gave it.  A more charming program has seldom been heard here.  Mrs. Hollingsworth-Watkins possesses a voice of most lovely quality—very musical, sympathetic and beautifully schooled; moreover, her diction is delightful, and even in the crowded hall every word was clearly understood.  From the group of Colonial songs to those of the present day, every number was gracefully and convincingly sung.




Mrs. Hollingsworth-Watkins possesses a voice of rare beauty and uses it with intelligence; as a ballad singer she certainly has no superior.




ALFRED G. ROBYN
, St. Louis.




Chicago Chronicle.


A smooth, musical soprano voice of wide range, possessing an unusual gift of expression in song, voice, personality and costume innovation combined to make her recital peculiarly fresh and agreeable.




Chicago Daily News.


Mrs. Hollingsworth-Watkins sang most beautifully at the benefit concert at the Auditorium.




Chicago Record-Herald.


Mrs. Hollingsworth-Watkins, whose voice is a soprano of wide range and deeply sympathetic quality, is performing a valuable service both to music and history by her interpretations of the songs of other days.  It is by the awakening of interest in such gentle aspects of a nation's social and domestic life that the annals of that nation are endeared to its citizens.




Cleveland Leader.


Mrs. Hollingsworth-Watkins' voice is of beautiful quality.






Figure

MISS FLORENCE MILLS.


MISS FLORENCE MILLS has studied at the Southern Conservatory of Music, under Josef Cadek, a graduate of the Prague Conservatory of Music, and later under the distinguished 'cellist, Bruno Steindel, of Chicago.  Her repertory is large, and she has gained an enviable position as a 'cellist in this country.




Miss Mills has splendid control of her instrument, the 'cello.  Her technic is clear and her tone broad, full and beautiful.  Her interpretation of the Chopin nocturne was delightful and showed a depth of feeling unusual in so young a player.—


The Times, December 5, 1903.



*** She has mastered entirely the great instrument and draws from it the richest, most soul stirring melody.  Her true and even bowing was a revelation to the audience, and the abandon with which she plays shows fine musical temperament.—


The News, Chattanooga, Tenn., June 14, 1902.



Miss Mills was marvelously pleasing in the 
Scherzo
 by van Goens.  Her fire and abandon in handling the 'cello is rarely equaled by professional players, and her musical temperament is apparent to the merest observer, while it inspires those of sympathetic nature in a wonderful manner.—


The Daily News, May 26, 1903.




Mrs. Hollingsworth = Watkins



New York Press.


Mrs. Hollingsworth-Watkins' concert, presenting 
Three Centuries of American Ballads,
 supplied a distinct want of a large portion of the musical public and left her enthusiastic audience in an Oliver Twist mental attitude, calling for 
more.
  … Special mention should be made of the manner in which 
The Lass With the Delicate Air
 was rendered by Mrs. Hollingsworth-Watkins' exquisitely sweet and remarkably flexible voice.  In Chadwick's 
Allah
 her dramatic power made itself felt, as indeed it had at times throughout the program.  In 
Moods
 (song cycle), Rogers, the four renderings were given with peculiar power.




The Sentinel, Milwaukee, Wis.


A lyric soprano of much grace of manner.




The Herald, Titusville, Pa.


A program of exceptional excellence.




Mrs. Hollingsworth-Watkins is a Southern nightingale, whose voice makes you think of the carolling of birds in the oleanders at dawn, so full-throated it is, so full of melody and the very joy of living.  She has, too, the dramatic instinct to an unusual degree, and she gives the old English ballad—the heart songs of the people for generation after generation—with a touch that is so tender and so sympathetic, a gayety and coquetry and a pathos that leaves the audience trembling between a tear and a smile.




DOROTHY DIX
, New Orleans, La.




The Tribune, South Bend, Ind.


A rare musical treat, which was thoroughly enjoyed.




Daily Republican-Times, Ottawa, Ill.


Mrs. Hollingsworth-Watkins' beautiful voice and gracious manner charmed all present.






Songs of Colonial Days


Figure

COLONIAL COSTUME.


Send Me a Lover, St. Valentine


Sweet Nelly, My Heart's Delight


The Lass With the Delicate Air


Good Morning, Gossip Joan


When Daisies Pied


Under the Rose


Fairy Flowers


To Phyllis


Black-Eyed Susan


New Year Song


Ah, Willow






Songs of Ante=Bellum Days





'Tis But a Little Faded Flower


Thomas




Molly Bawn


Lover




Gaily the Troubadour


Bayly




Flow Gently, Sweet Afton


Spilman




Mary of Argyle


Nelson




Annie Laurie


Lady Scott




Believe Me if All Those Endearing Young Charms


Stevenson




Oh, Whistle and I'll Come to You


Bruce





Figure

ANTE-BELLUM COSTUME.


Songs of the Present Day





Bird of My Lady's Bower


Stanley Smith




The Nightingale in the Wood
(Written for Mrs. Watkins)
Grant-Schaefer


Allah


Chadwick



The Blue Bell


McDowell



I'm Wearin' Awa'


Foote




Cloud Shadows


Hammond



Spring


Beach



The Woodpecker


Nevin




Moods (Song Cycle)
a Years Have Flown
b Who Knows?
c Not from the Whole Wide World
d You
Rogers


Romaika


Park