Clara Kathleen Rogers

Clara Kathleen Rogers (Cheltenham, January 14, 1844 – Boston, March 8, 1931), was an American composer, singer, writer and music educator.

Clara Kathleen Barnett Rogers was born into a musical family. Her grandfather, Robert Lindley, was a cellist; her father, John Barnett, was an opera composer and was the first music teacher his children had; her mother, Eliza, was a singer. At the age of twelve, her family moved to Germany in order further the musical education of the children. Clara was denied acceptance to the Leipzig Conservatory, but that decision was changed in 1857 in view of her talent, making her the youngest student ever admitted. Two of her siblings also attended the conservatory. During this time, John Barnett returned to England while Eliza Barnett stayed with her children, a trend that continued throughout the early part of Rogers's career.

While at Leipzig, Rogers began her studies at the piano, harmony, part writing, violin, cello, and voice. Although composition classes were not yet open to women at the conservatory, she nevertheless produced the first movement of her string quartet while a student there. Her classmate, Arthur Sullivan, copied orchestra parts for her, found players and arranged a performance of the piece. Rogers spent three years at the Conservatory, graduating at sixteen with honors.

Rogers chose to pursue a vocal career and became an opera singer. Using the pseudonym Clara Doria, she debuted in 1863 in Turin, Italy in a performance of Robert le diable by Giacomo Meyerbeer. After touring in Italy and five years in London as a concert singer, she came to United States in 1871 as a member of the Parepa-Rosa Opera Company and spent another seven years as a singer with at least three different troupes. Her singing career ended in 1878 when she married Henry Munroe Rogers, a lawyer living in Boston. Moving to Boston, Rogers had many artistic friends, such as Amy Beach, Margaret Ruthven Lang, George Chadwick, Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr., Amy Lowell, and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. Longfellow wrote the poem “Stay at Home, My Heart, and Rest” especially for Rogers. She held weekly musicales at her home and helped to promote the careers of her artistic friends.

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