“Guide to Voice Culture” is a book written by Madame E. Azalia Hackley. This book is soundly based on the ripe and rich experiences gained by Mrs. Hackley after an untiring and extensive preparation under the best voice culture masters in America and Europe. For many years she was the most prominent Colored singer in America. For several years past she has been devoting her time and energies in traveling throughout the country organizing and presenting chorus recitals dealing mostly or wholly with American Negro folklore songs. In thus constantly coming in personal contact with the masses of Colored people in all parts of the United States, Mrs. Hackley is doing more today than any musician in personally meeting and influencing so many Colored people to learn to love, sing, and preserve Negro plantation melodies.
Anita Patti Brown of Chicago, Ill., is today one of the most eminent sopranos belonging to the Negro race. She has made numerous and unusually successful trips throughout America and the West Indies, and those who have heard her remarkable singing instantly fall in love with her full round voice of natural richness and sweetness. Among her most catchy pieces is the one titled “Villanelle” which has been reproduced on Columbia Phonograph records with great success.
Florence Cole Talbert, aside from winning the diamond medal at the Chicago Musical College has also won national reputation as one of the leading sopranos among the American Colored people. Although high up on the ladder of songhood, she is continuing to climb to the top by taking special courses in Chicago under such famed teachers as Oscar Saenger and Madame Valerie. This great singer’s home is in Detroit, Michigan.
Cleota Collins, Columbus, Ohio, is a soprano of note, and, as the editor of Music and Poetry has so well said, “is a young woman with a frail body but such an enormous mentality and a voice that makes you close your eyes and listen to her interpretation of songs that set your senses titilating. But she has worked patiently to acquire this power and now condescends to tell young students how she did it.” She is associate editor of Music and Poetry.
Although he is at present living in New Zealand, where he has endeared himself in the hearts of all music lovers there H. Hodges can be rightly claimed an American product on account of his native home being Boston, Mass. His commanding and well trained talented voice is one of the wonders of Auckland where he conducts one of the most exclusive music studios.