Jenny Twitchell Kempton
| Jenny Twitchell Kempton | |
|---|---|
Jenny Twitchell Kempton, 1860
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| Born |
Jane Elizabeth Twitchell October 4, 1835 Dublin, New Hampshire, U.S. |
| Died | March 13, 1921 (aged 85) Los Angeles, California |
| Occupation | |
| Years active | 1850–1921 |
Jane Elizabeth "Jenny" Kempton (née Twitchell; October 4, 1835 – March 13, 1921) was an American contralto opera solo singer who had an active career spanning over fifty years starting in 1850. Twitchell Kempton sang in hundreds of performances across the United States and Europe during her long career.
Jane Elizabeth Twitchell was born in Dublin, New Hampshire, in 1835, the youngest of three children born to Reuben Wilder Twitchell (1810–1895) and Hanna Prentice Wight (1815–1842). Her father was a cabinetmaker and musician who volunteered for service in the regimental band of the First Regiment Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry in the American Civil War from 1861 to 1862, and again from 1863 to 1865 as a musician in the 2nd Regiment Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry of the XII Corps then the regimental bandleader of the XX Corps of the Union Army. Reuben Wilder Twitchell was the bandleader for General William Tecumseh Sherman and his March to the Sea in 1864. Jenny's brother, John Wight Twitchell (1842–1864), and her father-in-law, Ezra A Kempton Jr. (1808–1864), died within one week of each other in Andersonville Prison in August 1864, mere miles from her father and Sherman's Union Army.
Twitchell Kempton came to notice at a very young age as her untrained vocal range extended from a low C to high C without strain. She came to Boston from Bath, Maine, for a voice education at the age of 14 and soon thereafter sang contralto performances for the Handel and Haydn Society in Boston. Her first notice came from her lead in the first performance in the United States of the Mendelssohn oratorios St. Paul and Elijah in Boston in early 1850 with the Handel and Haydn Society.
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