Baillie, Dame Isobel (Isabella)
Baillie, Dame Isobel (Isabella)
Baillie, Dame Isobel (Isabella), esteemed Scottish soprano; b. Hawick, Roxburghshire, March 9, 1895; d. Manchester, Sept. 24, 1983. She was a pupil of Sadler Fogg in Manchester and of Guglielmo Somma in Milan. In 1921 she made her concert debut in Manchester, and thereafter made numerous appearances as an oratorio and Heder artist in England. In 1933 she sang for the first time in the U.S. She taught at the Royal Coll. of Music in London (1955–57), Cornell Univ. in Ithaca, N.Y. (1960–61), and the Manchester School of Music (from 1970). In 1951 she was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire; in 1978 she was made a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire. She sang in hundreds of performances of Messiah, and was also noted for her championship of works by Elgar, Vaughan Williams, and Ho wells. Her autobiography was aptly titled Never Sing Louder Than Lovely (London, 1982).
—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire