Difference between revisions of "Emma Lucy Gates Bowen"

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Emma Lucy Gates Bowen was an American opera singer.

She was born on November 5, 1880, in St. George, Utah, to Jacob Forsberry Gates and Susa Amelia Young, a daughter of Brigham Young.

The family moved to the Sandwich Islands in 1885 where Jacob and Susa served as missionaries for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Lucy, or Lulu, had shown an ability with the piano at an early age and she sang, danced, and played the ukelele for Queen Kapiolani.

At the age of 14, she won a piano competition held in the Salt Lake Tabernacle. At age 16, she went to Germany to formally study music. Her accompanied her sister Leah and Leah’s husband, John A. Widtsoe to Germany, where he continued his studies. Lucy changed her emphasis from piano to voice and studied for a year at the Berlin Conservatory. She also studied in New York and Paris.

She was offered a five-year contract with the Royal Opera House in Berlin. She stayed for two years when the Royal Opera House of Cassel, Germany made her its prima donna.

Lucy returned to the United States in 1915, after seven years in Germany. She also formed the Lucy Gates Opera Company with her brother B. Cecil Gates. With war in Europe, she declined requests to return to Cassel. In 1916, she signed a recording contract with Columbia Graphophone Company.

In 1916, she married Albert Ernest Bowen, who was called to serve in the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles in 1837. She continued her concert, recording, and opera career throughout the 1920s and ’1930s, but reduced these efforts after her husband was called as an apostle. She taught opera students instead.

She died of a cerebral hemorrhage on April 30, 1951.