Sophie Braslau

American operatic contralto, born 16 August 1892 in New York City and died 22 December 1935. Originally, Braslau trained to become a concert pianist, starting at age five, and studied at the Institute of Musical Art as well as with private tutors and the many musicians that her parents hosted in their home. The voice teacher A. Buzzi-Pecci heard Breslau humming during piano practice, decided she had operatic potential, and took her on as a pupil. Breslau auditioned at the Metropolitan Opera and won a five-year contract, debuting on stage as Tsarevitch Feodora in Boris Godunov in 1913 and performing as Mercedes in the revival of Carmen the following year. She was praised for her title role at the premiere of Charles Wakefield Cadman’s Shanewis in 1918, and performed in all the classic operas in English, Russian French, German, and Italian before she retired from opera in 1920. She then began a career as a soloist and recording artist, performing with various orchestras and recording operatic albums with the Victor Quartet until a year before her death at age thirty-three from illness.