Margaret Speaks: soprano

              1941

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MARGARET SPEAKS Soprano



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Margaret Speaks DRAWS BIG CROWDS

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CLEVELAND ACCLAIMS SPEAKS

ONE OF AMERICA'S MOST POPULAR VOCALISTS
Margaret Speaks was born in Columbus, Ohio, and began her musical career at the age of three—as a soloist in Sunday School.  The youngest child of a talented musical family, she attended Ohio State University where she was elected president of the Girls' Glee Club and chosen as one of the twelve most representative women.

After receiving her degree, she went to New York to study.  She was engaged as prima donna in a small revue, sang in musical comedy and toured with a small opera company.  Her first concert appearances came at this time, together with her first auditions for radio.  From modest beginnings in both fields, she rose steadily to stardom as more and more people were enabled to hear the rich appeal of her golden voice.



TOP HONORS AS RADIO STAR
For the past seven years Margaret Speaks has enchanted the millions who listen to the Voice of Firestone. Year after year, in both local and national polls, she has been elected as the Most Popular Woman Singer in the classical field.



CONCERT STAGE SUCCESSES BRING CAPACITY AUDIENCES
The lyric soprano has won universal acclaim and unstinted praise from the public and press of two continents.  Critics have been quick to report the winning appeal of her personality as well as the memorable appeal of her voice.  It would be difficult to find another singer today who can better convey to an audience both the sweep and subtlety of fine music.  She has filled concert engagements in almost every state of the Union and has sung in the principal cities of Europe.



FAVORITE IN SCHOOLS AND COLLEGES
Besides her own Alma Mater, other educational institutions at which Margaret Speaks has sung include the Universities of Missouri, Florida, Wyoming and Arizona; Texas A. & M. and Texas State Teachers' College; Peabody Conservatory, Baltimore; Cornish Foundation, Seattle; Wichita City Teachers' Association, Kansas; Mary Baldwin College, Virginia; Mount Vernon Seminary, Washington, D. C.



SOLOIST WITH SYMPHONIES
In addition to her regular performances on the air with Alfred Wallenstein's orchestra, Margaret Speaks has sung in concert, the country over, with many symphonies, including those of Philadelphia, Cleveland, San Francisco, Portland, Toronto, Oklahoma and Washington, D. C.



COMMAND APPEARANCES
Margaret Speaks has been honored with command performances before audiences large and small.  She sang a White House Concert on the occasion of President's dinner to the Speaker of the House.  Other special appearances include the Republican Convention in Philadelphia; Mayor LaGuardia's impressive Armistice Day Program at the Eternal Light; Ohio State Day at the World's Fair and before the Daughters of Ohio who presented her with a Scroll of Honor, naming her as the Ohio woman of outstanding achievement of the year.




5,200 ACCLAIM MISS SPEAKS IN RECITAL HERE

Margaret Speaks drew the largest audience of the National Symphony's popular series at Riverside Stadium last night.  Fifty-two hundred people who had learned to love her songs on the air wanted a share in this personal appearance.  They insisted that theirs should be a generous share, obliging the artist to extend her programmed numbers with four encores.
Times-Herald, Washington, D. C.



MISS SPEAKS WINS PLAUDITS OF 6,204

The turnout, an amazing number for a week night, totaled 6,204 and nearly filled the vast reaches of the Public Hall last night to hear Margaret Speaks, soprano, in one of the outstanding concerts of the three year music series of the Cleveland Summer Orchestra.
Cleveland Plain Dealer



PROM AUDIENCE OF 6,000 HEARS MARGARET SPEAKS

Her charm, intelligence and crystalline voice endeared her to an audience of 6,188 at the Promenade Symphony concert in Varsity Arena Thursday night.  Her appearance with the Philharmonic Orchestra was her first in Toronto, but seating capacity had to be augmented by cushions on the floor.  She sings with ease and accuracy and her diction is a joy.  Her interpretations are invariably artistic.
Toronto Globe and Mail



SCORES IN SEATTLE

The audience might have been divided into two groups; those who greeted her with a mental challenge, developed through having heard many a fine microphone voice fade on the concert stage, and those doting admirers who would have remained faithful even if there had been vocal skiddings.  She met the challenge so completely that new recruits were added to the latter group.
Seattle Post-Intelligencer



WON HER AUDIENCE IMMEDIATELY

Miss Speaks was in musicianly command of a naturally beautiful voice that is capable of much variety of color and meaning.  The singer's captivating personality and stage presence won her audience immediately and played its own valuable part in enhancing her artistry displayed throughout the varied song list.
San Diego Union



WINS HEARTS AND PLAUDITS

Margaret Speaks won the hearts and plaudits of her audience here last night with a brilliant performance that gave full expression to her beautiful lyric soprano voice.  The vigor and freshness of youth, combined with a sympathetic interpretation of the fine tonic shadings that distinguishes genius, left enthralled an audience of more than 1000 persons.
Tampa Times



THUNDEROUS APPLAUSE

Possessing one of the loveliest voices in concert or radio today, Miss Speaks gave a scintillating performance.  Her singing of Puccini's 'One Fine Day' from 'Madame Butterfly' left nothing to be desired and the applause which greeted her performance of Oley Speaks' 'Morning' was among the most thunderous ever accorded an artist at these concerts.
Cleveland Plain Dealer



FORTUNATE CHOICE

Fortunate indeed was the choice of soloist for the opening concert.  Margaret Speaks made her first Albany appearance and registered a decided success.  She has a lyric voice of exquisite quality.  Her intonation at all times was perfection and her diction admirable.
Albany Times-Union




OLEY SPEAKS

SYLVIA … A MUST ENCORE
Margaret Speaks is the niece of Oley Speaks, the noted composer of such beloved songs as Morning and Sylvia. She has sung the latter more than a thousand times and says that she is still trying to improve her interpretation of it.  She sang it through high school.  She sang it through college.  And concert audiences will rarely let her leave the stage until she has given it as an encore.


With Alfred Wallenstein, the noted conductor, Margaret Speaks relaxes after one of their popular programs.






NEW YORK RECITAL
In The Town Hall, Feb. 5th, 1941


NEW YORK TIMES, FEBRUARY 6, 1941.
MARGARET SPEAKS HEARD IN RECITAL
Soprano Gives Her First New York Program in Town Hall Before Capacity Audience





Miss Speaks, blessed with an attractive stage presence, employed her clear, firm, and freely emitted tones with exceptional intelligence and musicianship.  Her work had refinement, and was marked by a good grasp of style, excellent phrasing, impeccable intonation and a velvety legato.  The voice was pure and well equalized throughout its entire compass.
She was heard by a fervently appreciative capacity audience.

Noel Straus … New York Times


>In choosing her songs she followed the laudable policy of devoting a fair portion of the program to seldom-heard while appealing music.
The quality of her voice was appealing and marked by clarity and the vocal production gave a sense of evenness and fluency.  Top notes were firm and well focused, and there were no points in her vocal compass where, so to speak, gears had to be shifted to go into another register.

Francis D. Perkins … New York Herald-Tribune


One was absorbed by the finesse of her vocal technic, the smooth even texture of her voice and her command of French diction.  Here was a singer known principally for her association with a prominent radio program who not only possessed a voice, but also a thorough knowledge of its use, with a dependable musicianship and a tangible sense of style.
Irving Kolodin … New York Sun


Miss Speaks offered a program which not only pleased because of its content, but also because of the intelligent arrangements.
Robert C. Bagar … New York World-Telegram



PROGRAM

I.


Amour, vois quels maux, from Cadmus et Hermione
Lulli


Au sein de cette lyre, from Parnasso Confuso
Gluck


Alma, sintamos}
18 Century airs arr. by Nin


El jilguerito con pico de oro}






II.


Zur Rosenzeit
Grieg


Mit einer Wasserlilie
Grieg


Nocturne
Marx


Barkarole
Marx


Plauderwäsche
Weingartner





III.


Air de Lia, from L'Enfant Prodigue
Debussy


Aubade
Fauré


L'Enamourée
Hahn


Attributs
Poulenc


Sequidilla
de Falla





IV.


The White Swan
Ernest Charles


Serenade
Paul Nordoff


Velvet Shoes
Randall Thompson


The Birch Tree
Armstrong Gibbs


Comin' thro' the rye
arr. by Charles Kingsford


Morning
Oley Speaks






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