Merle Alcock

[35][4] She later studied singing in New York City with Bruno Huhn,[36] and privately with William Wade Hinshaw, Paul Savage and Herbert Witherspoon.

In March 1906 she was the contralto soloist in the world premiere of Wilhelm Carl Ernst Seeboeck’s cantata As the Season's Come and Go which was given in Des Moines.

[41] She continued to tour with the company through March 1907;[42] performing in concerts in Indiana,[43] Iowa,[44] Massachusetts,[45] Michigan,[46] Illinois,[47] and Virginia.

[50] In 1908 Tillotson joined the La Scala Sextet, a classical vocal group which toured in vaudeville.

[64] The following June she made her European debut under the name Merle Tillotson Alcock singing a concert of German lieder with her husband at Claridge's in London as part of a concert series organized by soprano Marta Cunningham.

[65] This performance was erroneously described as her “concert debut” in both her obituary in The New York Times[60] and the Großes Sängerlexikon.

[67] Alcock was engaged as the contralto soloist for the New York Symphony Orchestra‘s 1915 national tour.

[68] From this point on she became a well known oratorio soloist; and was particularly celebrated for her performances of music by George Frideric Handel and Johann Sebastian Bach.

At the Met she created the role of Ase in the world premiere of Deems Taylor’s The King's Henchman in 1927.

Other roles she performed at the Met included Amneris in Aida, Suzuki in Madama Butterfly, Maddalena in Rigoletto, Cieca in La Gioconda, the Shepherd in Tosca, Lola in Cavalleria rusticana, Kaled in Le Roi de Lahore, Amelfa in Le Coq d'or, Carmela in La Vida breve, the shepherd boy in L'amore dei tre re, Albine in Thaïs, the Nurse in Boris Godunov, the Goatherd in Dinorah, the First Norn in Götterdämmerung, the Sandman in Hansel and Gretel, and Mercédès in Carmen.

Some of her more well known pupils included sopranos Isabel Bigley, Eileen Farrell, Helen George, and Ethel Semser; tenor George Maran; mezzo-sopranos Mary Davenport and Eleanor Wold; cabaret singer Page Morton; and actress Betsy von Furstenberg.