Gervase Elwes

Gervase Elwes
(Gervas Henry Cary-Elwes)
1866-1921
English Tenor
Originally trained as a Lawyer and diplomat while in Brussels at the age of 28 he took singing lessons He was in his late thirties,when he gave his first professional performances in London. His principal teachers were Jacques Bouhy in Paris (1901–03), and in London Henry Russell and Victor Biegel, Bouhy asked him to decide between a baritone career in opera or a tenor career in oratorio and concert (and he chose the latter). His first professional appearance in London was opposite Agnes Nicholls, in Wallfahrt nach Kevlaar by Humperdinck at the St James's Hall, with the Handel Society in 1903, and immediately afterwards he appeared at the Westmorland Festival. In June 1903 he was auditioned at the Royal College of Music in London by Charles Villiers Stanford, who left the room and brought Hubert Parry in to hear him as well. He appearanced in Edward Elgar's The Dream of Gerontius in 1904 as an addition to his Beethoven Festival.He was known for his work in oratorio ,leider and English art song recitals.He toured Britain and while on a tour of the US he was killed in a train accident in Boston, Massachusetts,