Ellen Beach Yaw

Ellen Beach Yaw (born Sept. 14, 1868, Boston, N.Y., U.S.—died Sept. 9, 1947, West Covina, Calif.) was an American operatic soprano who enjoyed critical and popular acclaim on European and American stages during the early 20th century.

Yaw gave perhaps her first public concert in Brooklyn in 1888. Six years later, to raise money for European study, she made her first national tour. In 1896 she appeared at Carnegie Hall in New York City.

In November 1899 Yaw opened at the Savoy Theatre, London, in Sir Arthur Sullivan’s comic opera The Rose of Persia; the soprano role had been written especially for her. The opera was a great success, and it won Yaw an admiring patroness who sponsored her study with Mathilde Marchesi in Paris. While there, Yaw sang at the Opéra-Comique, and after a three-year period of intensive study she gave concerts in France, Italy, Switzerland, and England. She made her grand opera debut in Lucia di Lammermoor in Rome (1907) and sang the same role at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York City (1908).

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Yaw continued her successful concert tours of Europe until 1912 and her American tours until 1931. Known widely as Lark Ellen, she delighted critics and audiences with the richness and beauty of her voice and her exceptional range. She retired in 1931, though she continued to perform for charity events until 1946.