Milford chronicle., 1926-09-03
AN ALL-AMERICAN SOPRANO
Marjorie Moody, SOlOist With SOusa's
Band, American Born and Ameri-
can Trained.

1t is expected that a composer
conductor as thoroughly American
as Lieut.. Com. John Philip Sousa
would select vocalist of American
birth and training for solo appear
ances with the great Sousa Organi-
ZatiOn now on its thirty-third annual
tour, and therefore the famous band
master points with pride" to the
fact that Miss Marjorie Moody will
be heard this season with the Sousa
organization.
Miss Moody was reared in Boston,
where her first vocal training was
received under the direction of Nine.
NJ. c. Piccioli, who has trained many
singers for the operate and concert
stages, and who in her turn had been
a prima donna with many opera Or
ganizations in Europe and South
America. She first attracted the at
tion of Sousa after he had heard her
sing with the Apollo Club, Boston
organization but known the country
over because of it's fine choral
achievements. During her first sea-
son with the band, under the careful
tuelage of Sousa, she attracted mark
ed interest at every performance,
and finally met the biggest test of
her young lifetime when she sang
in the spacious auditorium in Chic
ago, where she was heard, among
others, by Herman De Vries, of the
Chicago Evening American, who said
of her:
THE genuine surprise of the eve
ming, however, was the singing of
an unknown soprano, Miss Marjor-
lie Moody, whose 'Ah! FOrs lui'
from La TraViata surpassed by a
league the performances of many a
coloratura soprano heard in these
regions, except that of the incompar-
able CALI Curci. Miss MOody's voice
has refreshing youth and purity; she
sings with charming naturalness and
refinement, and her training seems
to have been of the best, for she re-
spected Verdi's score, singing the
aria as it is written, minus inter-
polations, and in absolute pitch and
clarity of tone"
From that day, OF course, Miss
Moody ceased to be an unknown So
pranO," and for the past five seasons
she has been a delight to the great
Sousa audiences. In addition to her
singing, it must be noted that Miss
Moody has the unusual faculty of
being able to make herself heard in
the great halls and auditoriums in
which the Sousa organization gives
many of it's concerts, and yet before
an audience of 10000 people, such as
have attended a single Sousa con-
cert in Cleveland or in New York,
Miss Moddy's singing is as sweet, as
delicate and as free from any sug-
gestion of effort as if she were sing
ing in an intimate. concert chamber
before an audience of a few hundred
people or even in her own home for
a few friends.
Since her debut with Sousa, Miss
Moody has sung with the Boston
Symphony Orchestra, as well as ap-
pearing as soloist at the Worcester
(Ndass.) Musical Festival and at the
great Maine Music Festival, at Port
land, Maine. This present season may
be her last with Sousa, as she has
entered into contract with the Chi
cago Civic Opera, that contract not
becoming operative, however, until
after the conclusion of SOusa's cur
rent season.
Miss Moody is not the first woman
musician who has been introduced to
the American public by the March
King" The late Maude Powell, the
violinist, began her career with Sou
sa, and it was during her country
wide tours with Sousa that she be-
came famous.
Mr.. and Mrs. Pierre S. du Pont are
sponsoring this concert by Mr.. Sou
sa's Band for the benefit of Sandy
Landing Camp of the Y. w. G. A., on
the afternoon and evening Of Sep
tember 18th, at Longwood.