Clara Clemens - Early Career

Early Career

She spent the period from September 1897 to May 1899 living in Vienna with her parents. While there, she cultivated her voice for the purpose of going on the concert stage. Her voice was characterized as unusually sweet and attractive. She also studied piano in 1899 under Teodor Leszetycki. In December 1900, she was invited by the people of Hartford to perform at a grand concert given by the Boston Symphony Orchestra. She studied for several years under masters in Europe, before making her professional debut in Florence. Her American debut, assisted by violinist Marie Nichols, as a contralto concert singer was on the evening of September 22, 1906 at the Norfolk Gymnasium. in Norfolk, Connecticut where in 1905 she rented Edgewood, Clemens used the proceeds from the concert to purchase a memorial window for her mother in the Norfolk Church of the Transfiguration, Episcopal. Charles Edmund "Will" Wark (1876-1954), a classical pianist originally from Cobourg, Ontario, Canada, became Clemens piano accompanist from the winter of 1906 to late in 1908. Clemens and Nichols also continued to perform together, including a series of concerts in London and Paris in 1908. On May 30, Clemens debuted in London at a benefit concert, raising money for American girls to attend Oxford and Cambridge Universities.