Antoinette Sterling

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Antoinette Sterling Mackinlay
Vocalist

Antoinette Sterling (January 23, 1841 – January 10, 1904) was an American contralto most known for singing sentimental ballads in Britain and the British Empire.

Early life

Sterling was born in Sterlingville,

William Bradford.[2] During her childhood, she developed anti-British prejudices. Her patriotic sympathies were stirred by the story of the destruction of tea cargoes in Boston harbor
and she resolved never to drink tea again; she kept this resolution for the rest of her life. 

At the age of eleven she took some singing lessons from Signor Abella in New York. She then began teaching and giving singing lessons in Mississippi some time after her father's death in 1857. When the civil war started, during the summer of 1862, she fled north by night, guided by African Americans.

She became a church singer at

Pauline Viardot-Garcia and Manuel Garcia in London before returning to America in 1871 to became a concert singer.[4]

Professional career in England and British Empire

Sterling returned to England at the beginning of 1873, where she made her British singing debut in the Covent Garden Promenade Concerts and became known for singing ballads and Scotch songs.[5]

Her first engagement in London was at the promenade concert on November 6, 1873; she choose to sing the "Slumber Song" from Bach's

St. James's Hall quickly followed.[3]

In February 1874, she sang in Mendelssohn's Elijah on two consecutive nights at Exeter Hall and Albert Hall. Her repertoire was entirely oratorio music or German Lieder. There was some criticism of her singing at the time; "her style is lacking in sensibility and refinement. The excellence of voice is not all that is required in the art of vocalisation" (Athenum, 14 March). She was engaged for the Three Choirs Festival at Hereford.[6]

On Easter Sunday, 1875, she was married at the Savoy Chapel to John MacKinlay, a Scottish American. They settled in Stanhope Place, London.[3]

Engagements for high-class concerts gradually ceased, but she still sang in Oratorio, mainly German works, including

Tennyson's "Crossing the Bar" in Behrend's setting.[3]

Originally raised as a

Quaker, she became a believer in Christian Science after belonging to various sects;[2] she refused to wear fashionable low-necked dresses and received permission to wear an outfit of her own choosing at a command performance before Queen Victoria. She believed that music could move people spiritually and often sang for free in prisons.[2]

Australia and New Zealand

In 1893, Sterling embarked on an Australasian tour for

Centennial Hall in Sydney to crowds totaling more than 25,000. Before traveling to New Zealand
, she visited schools, hospitals, and social reform associations.

When she arrived in

maiden hair fern "as a co-worker in the organisation." It was clear from a news article expounding on Sterling's career that her work was greatly admired: "Antoinette Sterling comes to show us how a perfect voice, perfectly educated, and controlled by a perceptive, devotional, and feeling mind, can lead us to heights and breadths and lengths and depths of musical delight such as we have not before understood."[8]

On July 9, 1893, while on her way to a concert in Dunedin, she received notice of her husband's death in Australia. She continued and performed at Garrison Hall[10] before returning to Australia.[11]

End of career and death

Sterling revisited America in 1876 and 1895 for a few months before returning to London.[3][12]

In the winter of 1902–1903, her farewell tour was announced. Her last appearance was at East Ham on October 15, 1903, and the last song she sang was "Crossing the Bar".

Sterling died at her residence in Hampstead, London, on January 10, 1904, and was cremated at Golders Green,[3] where her ashes were interred.

Family

Sterling was survived by a son and a daughter, both popular vocalists at the time.

Leila Antoinette Sterling Mackinlay, who was named in her honor.[citation needed
]

References

  1. ^ a b Sterling, Albert Mack (1909). The Sterling Genealogy: Volume 2: William Sterling of Haverhill, Massachusetts. The Grafton Press. p. 931.
  2. ^ a b c Gary Sandman Artist website, Antoinette Sterling
  3. ^ a b c d e f g Davey 1912.
  4. ^ Malcolm Sterling Mackinlay (London, 1908) Manuel García: The Centenarian and His Times, pp.134–135 and p.219
  5. ^ The Advertiser (Adelaide), 'A Famous Singer Dead: Madame Antoinette Sterling', Vol. XLVI, No. 14,113 (1904), p. 5
  6. ^ JStor website, The Gloucester Musical Festival, journal article by Henry C. Lunn, published in The Musical Times and Singing Class Circular, Vol. 16, No. 380 (Oct. 1, 1874), pp. 635-638
  7. The Register (Adelaide)
    . Vol. LXIX, no. 17, 835. South Australia. 12 January 1904. p. 5. Retrieved 18 April 2021 – via National Library of Australia.
  8. ^ a b "Madame Antoinette Sterling, The Queen of Contraltos". Poverty Bay Herald [New Zealand]. No. 6711. Papers Past, National Library of New Zealand. 29 June 1893. Retrieved 1 October 2021.
  9. ^ "Untitled". Auckland Star. No. 148. Papers Past, National Library of New Zealand. 24 June 1893. Retrieved 1 October 2021.
  10. ^ "Madam Antoinette Sterling". (Dunedin) Evening Star. No. 9181. Papers Past, National Library of New Zealand. 10 July 1893. Retrieved 1 October 2021.
  11. ^ "Madame Antoinette Sterling". South Australian Register (Adelaide). No. 14567. Trove. 21 July 1893. Retrieved 1 October 2021.
  12. ^ Sterling Mackinlay, Malcolm (September 1904). "Some Reminiscences of Antoinette Sterling".

Attribution

Wikisource This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Davey, Henry (1912). "Sterling, Antoinette". In Lee, Sidney (ed.). Dictionary of National Biography (2nd supplement). London: Smith, Elder & Co.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Antoinette Sterling.
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