Anna El-Tour (Soprano) (Odessa 1886 – Amsterdam 1954)

She was one of those rare musicians whose teaching career began while she was at the beginning of her singing career. She studied at the St Petersburg Conservatory, where her professors were Annette Essipova for the piano and Mme von Hacke (mother of the soprano Eugenia Bronskaja), voice. She is credited with a debut in London in 1909, and she sang in the Saint Gall Opera, inSwitzerland, from 1913 to 1914. She taught in Moscow from 1915 to 1920 and in Berlin at the New Conservatory, from 1922 to 1925, after touring for two years in China, Burma, India and thePhilippines. From 1925 she taught in Paris, from where she continued to make extensive concert tours. Her repertoire included songs in Russian, French, German and English. Among her students was the mezzo-soprano Jennie Tourel. Mme El-Tour died in Amsterdam on 30 May 1954.

Chronology of some appearances

1913-1914 Switzerland Saint Gall Opera

RECORDINGS FOR SALE

Gramophone  1910

The soldier's bride, op 8, n° 4 (Rachmaninov) 2-23476 14095

Zuleika (Persian songs, op 34, n° 1) (Rubinstein) 2-23488 14096
By the sea: op 46: 2. Not a sound from the sea. - 1. The wave breaks into spray (Rimsky-Korsakov) 2-23491 14100