Antoinette Sterling
| Antoinette Sterling Mackinlay | |
|---|---|
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| Background information | |
| Birth name | Antoinette Sterling |
| Also known as | Madame Antoinette Sterling |
| Born |
January 23, 1850 Sterlingville, Town of Philadelphia, Jefferson County, New York, USA. |
| Died | January 10, 1904 (aged 53) Hampstead, London, England, UK |
| Occupation(s) | Vocalist |
Antoinette Sterling (January 23, 1850 – January 10, 1904) was an Anglo-American vocalist.
She was born at Sterlingville, New York State, on 23 January 1843. Her father, James Sterling, owned large blasting furnaces, and she claimed descent from William Bradford. In childhood, she imbibed anti-British prejudices, and her patriotic sympathies were so stirred in childhood by the story of the destruction of tea cargoes in Boston harbour, that she resolved never to drink tea, and kept the resolution all her life. She already possessed a beautiful voice of great compass and volume, and took a few singing lessons at the age of eleven from Signor Abella in New York. When she was sixteen her father was ruined by the reduction in 1857 of the import duties in the protective tariff, and died; she went to the state of Mississippi as a teacher, and after a time gave singing lessons.
When the civil war broke out her position became very unpleasant, and with another northern girl she fled by night during the summer of 1862, and was guided north by friendly negroes. Afterwards she became a church singer and was engaged in Henry Ward Beecher's church at Brooklyn, where a special throne-like seat was erected for her. In 1868, she came to Europe for further training; she sang at Darlington in Handel's Messiah on 17 December, and elsewhere, taking some lessons under W. H. Cummings in London before proceeding to Germany.
There she studied under Pauline Viardot-Garcia, and finally under Manuel Garcia in London. In 1871, she returned to America and became a prominent concert singer. Her voice had settled into a true contralto of exceptional power and richness. She came back to England at the beginning of 1873 where she made her debut in the Covent Garden Promenade Concerts and became popular for singing ballads and Scotch songs.
Her first engagement in London was at the promenade concert of 6 November 1873; the programmes were then distinctly popular, with a tendency towards vulgarity; she insisted, in spite of all expostulations, in singing the 'Slumber Song' from Bach's Christmas Oratorio and some classical Lieder. She obtained great popular success, and enthusiastic receptions on her appearance at the Crystal Palace, the Albert Hall, Exeter Hall, and St. James's Hall quickly followed.
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