Biographical Sketches
Alice Eversman
Alice Eversman was born on September 4, 1885, in Effingham, Illinois, to John Caspar Eversman and Frances Caroline Gibbons. The family moved to Chicago when she was young, and then to Washington, D.C., where she attended the Georgetown Visitation Convent and Fairmont Seminary. She began music studies with John W. Bischoff in D.C. and Emma Thursby in New York City. She received a scholarship to study at the Peabody Conservatory of Music in Baltimore, Maryland. Her brother, John C. Eversman, served as manager early in her career and sent her to Berlin, Milan, and Paris, where she studied with Amelie Heussner, George Fergusson, Gabriele Sibella, and Roberto Moranzoni, among others. From 1910 to 1912, she was a prima donna of the Chicago Opera Company and also sang with the Montreal Opera Company, the Century Opera Company of New York City, and the San Carlo Opera. In 1916, she became a prima donna with the Metropolitan Opera Company of New York City. She also toured with the Sonora Opera Company. Her repertoire included Aida, Gounod's Faust, and Il Trovatore. During the 1910s, she toured throughout Russia, Europe, and the Americas with violinist Elena de Sayn. While in Paris during the 1920s, she founded the European Concert Bureau and reviewed films for the Paris edition of the New York Herald. After moving to Washington, D.C., she joined the staff of The Evening Star in 1932 as a music critic, reviewing concerts nearly daily until her retirement in 1953. She was the founder of the Washington Music Council and a member of the Women's National Press Club. She served as president of the American Newspaper Women's Club from 1942 to 1945, and in 1942, received an honorary Doctorate of Music from Washington College of Music. She died in Fairfax, Virginia, on February 1, 1974.
Elena de Sayn
Elena de Sayn (also known as Helena, Helen, or Yelena) was born on May 10, most likely in 1884, in Voronezh, Russia, to General Emmanuel and Marie (Chmelova) von Sayn. She was a member of the Sayn-Wittgenstein-Berleburg family and changed her name from von Sayn to de Sayn upon becoming an American citizen. She studied at the Imperial Conservatory in St. Petersburg under Johannes Nelbandian and graduated from the Royal Conservatory in Leipzig in 1911. Her violin teachers included Hans Sitt in Leipzig, Leopold Auer in New York, and Otakar Ševčík in Vienna. During the 1910s, she toured throughout Russia, Europe, and the Americas with operatic soprano Alice Eversman. She lived in Asheville, North Carolina, during the early 1920s, opening a music conservatory there and writing for the Asheville Citizen and Musical America. She settled in Washington, D.C., in 1922 and in 1924 founded the Société des Concerts Intimes, which engaged well-known musical artists for concerts in D.C. She also founded the American Society for Music and Fine Arts and served as its president for thirty years. She was a member of the League of American Pen Women and served as the D.C. Chairwoman of Music. She was a violin instructor at the Catholic University of America and taught private violin lessons in D.C., including through a program offered by the Veterans Administration. In 1937, she began working for The Washington Star as a music critic and assistant music editor to Eversman, a position she held until her retirement in 1954. She continued performing throughout her life and was a proponent of American music, contemporary music, and music by women composers. She performed at the Chicago World's Fair in 1933 and the New York World's Fair in 1939, and claimed to be the first person to program a concert of music composed solely by American women composers. She died in Washington, D.C., in December 1966.