May 11, 19 2 2
MUSICAL COURIER
of the fund my father had given me expecting it to tide me over after my return until I could get started as a recital singer; for this was my consuming ambition.”
But the first news that greeted the young singer upon his return to London was that his father’s business had failed. To help meet the disaster he sent home his cherished bank fund.
“As I had spent all of my opera salary, I was left dead broke,” he explained. “I worked at everything and anything that came my way, and when near a state of mind where I was contemplating chucking music and turning stevedore, received an offer to tour the provinces in vaude-
Photo by Edwin F. Townsend
EDGAR SCHOFIELD, baritone.
ville. I grabbed the offer as a drowning man grabs the life-rope thrown to him.
“At the end of the tour I counted my assets. Just enough to pay for a passage to New York and a pittance over. And, although things began to look more promising for me in England, 1 bought a passage on the first steamer for home. For in New York was Enrichetta Onelli, leading lyric soprano of the Quinlan Company and who, previous to this, had had a notable career in Italy. We were engaged. So New York looked far more enticing to me than London.
“I arrived in my native country with $7 and a trunk filled chiefly with operatic costumes. Yet within a week Enrichetta Onelli and I were married. She was under contract for a season of opera abroad, beginning in the fall, and I decided to go over too and try my fortune as a concert singer. The year was 1914. Our passage was engaged for August 10. On August 2 the war storm broke, and all of our plans were upset.
“We were in New York without funds, and with the musical situation all over the country upset by the conflict in Europe. If I were to tell what we went through during those first years it would be such a chronicle of desperately hard work, of privation, of heartbreaking discouragement, that no one would have the courage to read it.
“We didn’t know from one day to another how the dinner was to be paid for. Sometimes it consisted of a nice soup with rice and----well—a nice soup------”
“I managed to corral a few pupils. Then, after a time I secured a church position. But it scarcely paid the rent. I shall never forget the day I got the chance to sing for a week at the Strand Motion Picture Theater. That night we squandered our money on a table d’hote dinner.
“But the first permanent success came when I was engaged as baritone soloist at St. Bartholomew’s Church. After that things began to brighten up and come my way. Then America entered the war. I joined the navy and remained in service until the close of the conflict, St. Bartholomew’s keeping me on the payroll during all of that time. When I returned to civilian life I began to get engagements to sing in oratorio, in concert quartets, and, occasionally, in recital.”
These engagements, the interviewer learned, finally led to a Canadian tour to Vancouver with Louise Edwina, during which the young baritone so won the favor of the public that recital engagements in this country followed. And such was his success that in the fall of 1920 Mr. Schofield was engaged by Geraldine Farrar as assisting artist for her tour of twenty-four concerts. He was subsequently reengaged for her tour in the spring of 1921 and also for the one made in the following fall.
By this time Mr. Schofield was in such demand for individual recitals that he could no longer contract for a combined tour with any artist. Soon after the opening of the 1921-22 season he was obliged to resign his position at St. Bartholomew’s as he was so heavily booked that he could be in New York but a few Sundays between fall and spring. His tours, since the last one with Miss Farrar at the beginning of this season, have included two to the West, two to the far South, and with a third to that section of the country coming this month. He has also filled a number of engagements in New York and vicinity and made numerous trips to distant points for single appearances.
“But I am still far from satisfied,” he said when congratulated on his success. “I am continually working to perfect my voice and to enlarge my interpretative scope. I have held tenaciously to my ideals throughout all the vicissitudes of my career. An ideal is the most constructive force in life. My advice to all young singers is, have an ideal, stick to it through thick and thin, and work, work,
14
HAVE AN IDEAL AND CLING TO IT IS THE
ARTISTIC CREED OF EDGAR SCHOFIELD
In Interview, the Well Known Baritone Proves that Work Combined with an Ideal is the Best Means of Getting Ahead
formances at a summer park some distance from my home. I applied for a position in the cast and got it. I was paid $18 a week. I made good and stayed with the company all summer. I had to work day and night, but it seemed play to me in comparison to work in the mill.
“That experience increased my determination to make singing my life work. My father, rather secretly gratified by the success of my first independent venture, sent me to Boston to study.”
Mr. Schofield then passed over with a few brief comments his three years in Boston, saying that they were made so easy for him their history was not interesting. Two of these years were spent in study of voice, and the languages, and then came the competition for the first Eben Jordan scholarship to the Boston Opera School. Although there were more than a hundred competitors, Mr. Schofield won the scholarship. He remained in the school _ for a year, then left because he found operatic work so distaste-ful.
“I was pretty low on funds by this time,” he went on. “Fearing my father’s displeasure because I had thrown up my scholarship, I set out to earn some money on my own account. I toured the Keith circuit as a vaudeville soloist. Again I think my father was pleased to find that I could go it on my own, so to speak. For when at the end of my vaudeville? tour I announced that I wanted to go to London to study with John Coates, he agreed to finance me, and did it generously.
“This sounds easy, doesn’t it? Well, it was for a time. I was being wheeled along, as it were, toward my goal via a smooth asphalt road. But there came a day when I was plodding along on foot over rough cobble-stones.
“The easy time included a year in London under John Coates. Then came an offer to tour around the world with the Quinlan Opera Company. The allurement of the tour completely overcame my aversion to opera and I joined the company. I left behind me in a London bank the remainder
Have an ideal. Cling to it tenaciously through thick and thin. Work without ceasing.
This is Edgar Schofield’s artistic creed.
And this is the advice Mr._ Schofield gives to the many vocal students who, when he is on tour, come to him after a recital to ask how they, too, can attain success on the concert stage.
“Some of these students seem to cherish the delusion that a singer’s public success is due to some magic quality or to luck,” he said when commenting recently on these ambitious young vocalists. “When I tell them that I have worked against every sort of discouragement and adversity to get where I now am many of them look at me as if saying to themselves, ,The same old story.’
“And they are right. It is the same old story.^ Turn to the biography of any man or woman who has achieved anything of importance and you will find the story there. The story of unceasing work against fearful odds, and of unceasing adherence to an ideal.”
When asked to tell enough of his history to prove that work combined with an ideal is the best means of getting ahead. Mr. Schofield said:
“From the time that I was old enough to distinguish between ‘Yankee Dodle’ and the ‘Doxology’ my ambition was to be a singer. But my father wanted me to become a partner in his woolen mills. With this aim in view he made me work every summer in his mills which were at Rockville, Conn. I learned wool sorting, spinning and weaving at a wage of $10 a week. And today I am as sensitive to the feel of a piece of woolen cloth as I am to the pitch of a singer’s tone.
“Then, at seventeen, hurt and discouraged by a drastic penalty inflicted on me because in weaving seventeen yards of cloth I left out one thread, I ran away._ That episode is a story in itself, but not to be told at this time as it is beside the point.	. .
“I ran away to an opera company that was giving per-
BARONI
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Scores on Transcontinental Tour
APPEARANCES FROM JANUARY 1
April	3, Great Falls, Montana.
5-6, Butte, Montana.
8-10, Spokane, Wash.
12-13, Portland Ore.
14-	15, Tacoma, Wash.
19-20, Victoria, B. C.
21-	22, Vancouver, B. C.
24, Calgary, Alta.
26, Regina, Sask.
28-29, Winnipeg, Man.
MAY AND JUNE DATES
May	3-4, Duluth, Minn.
5-6, Superior, Wis.
8-	9, St. Paul, Minn.
12-13, Omaha, Neb.
15-	16, Des Moines, la.
17, Davenport, la.
19-20, Rockford, 111.
22-	23, Peoria, 111.
24, Springfield, 111.
26-27, Danville, 111.
31-June 1, Louisville, Ky.
June 2-3, Knoxville, Tenn.
5-6, Cincinnati, O.
7, Columbus, O.
9-	10, Dayton, O.
12-13, Indianapolis, Ind.
14, Terre Haute, Ind.
16-	17, South Bend, Ind. 19-20, Muskegon, Mich. 21-22, Grand Rapids, Mich. 24, Lansing, Mich.
26-27, Jackson, Mich.
28, Flint, Mich.
30-July 1, Toledo, O.
•3, Reading, Pa.
Wilmington, Del.
•7, Trenton, N. J.
Newark, N. J.
■12, New Haven, Conn.
■14, Hartford, Conn.
•19, Utica, N. Y.
•22, Syracuse, N. Y.
■24, Rochester, N. Y.
Jamestown, N. Y.
•28, Scranton, Pa. Wilkesbarre, Pa. Johnstown, Pa.
-4, Washington, D. C.
7־, Charleston, S. C.
Savannah, Ga.
•11, Jacksonville, Fla.
■14, New Orleans, La. Mobile, Ala.
Birmingham, Ala.
, Atlanta, Ga.
Chattanooga, Tenn. Nashville, Tenn.
■25, Memphis, Tenn.
•28, Little Rock, Arkansas. -4, Topeka, Kansas.
-7, Wichita, Kansas.
11־, Oklahoma City, Okla.
Fort Worth, Texas.
15־, Dallas, Texas.
18־, Houston, Texas.
21־, San Antonio, Texas. -24, El Paso, Texas.
Denver, Col.
-30, Ogden, Utah.
-April 1, Salt Lake City.
January
Ills-18■ 21• 23■ 25, 27■ 30,
February 1 3
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Mme. Baroni displayed a true Coloratura voice, smooth and rich in the lower register and bell-like m the higher trills. Her program included selections of a wide range of difficulty, but she appeared to advantage in them all.—Walter Heaton, Telegram, Reading, Pa., Jan. 3rd, 1922.
Alice Baroni proved herself a singer of ability. An aria beautifully rendered was the “Humming Bird” by David Proctor, dedicated to Mme. Baroni. Her trilling was superb, as well as the cadenzas and she displayed a remarkable range.—Florence Ruth Miller, The Eagle, Reading, Pa., Jan. 3rd, 1922.
Alice Baroni is an artist of high rank with a well trained soprano voice, fluent in all styles from Operatic to Ballad forms.—C. W. Canfield, Mus. Editor, Every Evening, Wilmington, Del., Jan. 5, 1922.
Alice Baroni’s voice is gloriously young and of wonderful quality. It has in it a certain elemental quality, which makes one think of woodland things. One is at times surprised, almost startled, by the lovely flood of sound, always under such perfect control.—Morning News, Wilmington, Del., Jan. 5th, 1922.
Mme Baroni’s renditions demonstrated to an enthusiastic audience the wondrous flexibility of her voice and her superb technique. Although she held the admiration of her listeners by the beauty and grace of her voice from her first entrance, her closing number, a song cycle: “Dust of Dreams” by David Proctor, was the truest vehicle of its clarity, persistent melody and touching sympathy.—Daily Press, Utica, N. Y. Jan. 19th, lyzz.
A voice of rich tone and quality, at all times under perfect control.— Post Express, Rochester, Jan. 24th, 1922.
Alice Baroni is an exceptional artist. Her voice has much warmth and clearness of tone, which, in addition to wonderful control, makes her work especially suited to the concert stage.—The Tennessean, Nashville, Tenn., Feb. 24th, 1922.
Mme. Baroni has a magnificent voice, carefully trained, true, musical, and she sings with great ease. Her trilling and rendition of staccato notes were especially fine.—Arkansas Gazette, Little Rock, F eb. 28th, 1J2Z.
Alice Baroni has a beautiful voice, clear and strong. She sang a varied programme in a manner that indicated great experience and splendid musicianship.—Standard-Examiner, Ogden, Utah, March 30th, 1922.
Alice Baroni, who is gifted with a voice of rare beauty and compass, was heard in a number of really worth while songs.—The Tribune, Salt Lake City, April 2nd, 1922.
Management: ALICE BARONI, 263 West 93rd Street	New York
Phone River 3644