Pauline Joran

Pauline Joran (1870 – 13 August 1954) was an American-born opera singer and violinist. She was the wife of William Ernest Bush, the first and last Baron de Bush, and mother of Paulise de Bush, the "Baby Baroness". She is remembered for creating the role of Saida in Arthur Sullivan's 1898 Savoy opera The Beauty Stone.

After a touring career as a child violinist, playing together with her pianist sisters in the U.S. and abroad in the 1880s, Joran began an opera career in England, which lasted through the 1890s. With her marriage to Baron de Bush in 1899, she retired from the stage. He was killed in an accident in 1903, and Joran lived quietly for some years, returning to society by 1910 as a hostess and patroness of music.

Joran was born Clara Pauline Joran in Chicago, Illinois in 1870, the second daughter of Louis Grund Joran, a musician, and his wife, an English pianist. She made her violin debut, at age 11, forming a concert troupe with her pianist sisters, Lulu (two years older) and Elise (two years younger). Their director, the fourth member of the quartet, was Miss M. Hyde who also acted as an accompanist. The children's talents were much admired at the time, especially their skill at absolute pitch and their ability to tell the notes of chords sounded whilst blindfolded. The troupe visited California, Mexico and Australia, among others. In Hawaii, they played for the last king, Kalākaua.

Joran underwent preliminary voice training in 1884–85 with the singer Margaret Blake-Alverson, who had described her as singing with taste and feeling, as well as being a talented violinist. In 1885, they performed for the famous opera singer Adelina Patti. In the latter part of the 1880s, the Jorans travelled to Europe to further their musical studies.

In London, as a debutante, Joran was recommended to the conductor Wilhelm Ganz. As a member of the New Meistersingers' Club in St James's Street, Ganz arranged musical soirees for which he held auditions for potential performers. He found that Joran played the violin well, and that she had a lovely soprano voice. Ganz advised her to give up playing the violin and take to the operatic stage, as she was a very good-looking young woman with a beautiful figure. Nevertheless, Joran did not abandon the violin, playing Mendelssohn's G minor Violin Concerto in Liverpool in 1893 and, as late as December 1896, giving a concert at St James's Hall, London, as both violinist and vocalist.

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