Albert Lindquest, also known as Allan Rogers Lindquest, (born Carl Albert Lindquest, 24 September 1891 – 5 February 1984) was an American tenor, actor, recording artist, voice teacher, conductor, radio producer, and academic.
Born to Swedish parents in Chicago, Lindquest studied law at the University of Chicago prior to beginning his performance career as a concert tenor on the Chautauqua circuit in the summer of 1912. He performed regularly as a concert singer with American orchestras through 1919; often in oratorios or in concert-versions of operas as well as other literature. He toured with the Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra in its spring tours of 1913, 1915, 1916, and 1919, and also toured with the St. Paul Symphony Orchestra in 1914 and with the New York Symphony Orchestra under Walter Damrosch in 1917. He also sang in concerts with the Oratorio Society of New York, the New York Philharmonic, the Philadelphia Orchestra, and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.
Both Lindquest and his first wife, the soprano Leonora Allen, made recordings for the Victor Talking Machine Company in 1916. Allen was his frequent performance partner on symphony tours in the 1910s, and later in vaudeville until their divorce in 1931. With the slow down of concert work in America at the end of World War I, Lindquest transitioned into work in vaudeville beginning in August 1918 when he adopted the stage name Allan Rogers (sometimes given as Alan Rogers). For a time he alternated back and forth between his billing as Albert Lindquest (used primarily in classical concerts and recitals) and Allan Rogers (used in vaudeville and in light operas or musical theatre). This billing practice was inconsistent and sometimes he used the Albert Lindquest billing in vaudeville. He used both names for records made with Edison Records; working for that company as a recording artist from 1918 until 1922.
As Allan Rogers, Lindquest had a career in operettas and musicals on Broadway and American regional theatre from the mid 1920s into the early 1930s. He rarely performed in staged operas during his career; although he did twice perform the role of Pinkerton in staged productions of Madama Butterfly. With the onset of the Great Depression decimating performance opportunities in New York, he moved to Los Angeles in 1932 where he worked as a radio producer, orchestra conductor, and singer for KNX.
In 1935 Lindquest opened a private voice studio in Pasadena, California. As a voice teacher and academic he worked under the name Allan Rogers Lindquest; sometimes shortened to Allan Lindquest or Alan Lindquest. In 1947 he co-founded the Music Academy of the West with Lotte Lehmann, and became an influential vocal pedagogue with long term impact on this profession. Specifically his philosophy of treating the student as a "whole person" and understanding the mental state of the singer and how that impacted vocal development and performance was a novel idea at its time and has become widely adopted among voice teachers. He also briefly taught as a member of the voice faculty at Baylor University.
Biography Early life and initial education
Carl Albert LindquestCarl Albert Lindquest in the Cook County, Illinois, U.S., Birth Certificates Index, 1871-1922 was born in Chicago, Illinois on 24 September 1891. His parents, Carl (later Charles) and Emma Lindquest, were of Swedish birth. He learned some music in public school growing up in the suburbs of Chicago, and also studied violin for three years. His parents, however, were not supportive of a music career. He attended high school at the University of Chicago Laboratory Schools. He was then educated at the University of Chicago (UC); studying law for his intended career.
Lindquest was a soloist in UC's glee club, and was also a church soloist at First Baptist Congregational Church at this point in his life. In March 1912 the Italian tenor Alessandro Bonci came to UC to give a recital at Mandel Hall. He overheard Lindquest, now in his junior year, performing with the glee club while walking on campus and was struck by the quality of the voice he heard. Bonci made the point of meeting Lindquest afterword to encourage him to leave school and pursue a performance career. He soon after departed UC and began his career as a tenor in Chautaqua concerts held in tents.
Bonci served as Lindquest's mentor during his early career, and helped him find a new voice teacher in Chicago, the bass Albert Borroff. Borroff (died 1936) was music director of the Chicago Sinai Congregation for 35 years, and had sung professionally as a concert and opera singer. He also studied voice in Chicago with the American tenor William Clare Hall; a singer trained by Jean de Reszke and Oscar Seagle.
Early performance career
In the summer of 1912 Lindquest joined the concert company of Canadian baritone C. Edward Clarke (husband of Rachel Steinman Clarke) and violinist Sadie L. Walker with whom he traveled the Chautaqua circuit under the billing Albert C. Lindquest as part of the Clarke-Walker Company. By September 1912 this group had been re-named the Lindquest-Walker Company after Clarke had left the company. Alone, he served as a soloist that year at the Chautaqua in Rockford, Illinois.
In January 1913 he gave a recital with pianist Jeannette Durno sponsored by the Decatur Musical Club. The following April he appeared as a soloist with the Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra (MSO) in concerts given at the University of Kansas and Christian College in which he sang both alone and in duets with Luella Chilson-Ohrman. The following month he toured with the MSO and its conductor, Emil Oberhoffer, to a music festival held in Kalamazoo, Michigan. He returned often to performances with the MSO in the following years; ultimately giving 175 performances with the orchestra across his career.
In the summer of 1913 Lindquest resumed touring as a soloist in the Chautaqua circuit. prior to touring as a member of the Metropolitan Grand Opera Quartette in the 1913-1914 season. In February 1914 he was a soloist with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra (CSO) at Orchestra Hall in a program that also featured violinist Hugo Kortschak. After this he toured with the St. Paul Symphony Orchestra and conductor Walter Henry Rothwell; including a return to the music festival at the University of Kansas in April 1914. In June 1914 he was a soloist in Haydn's The Creation led by Cornell University music professor Horace Alden Miller at a music festival in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Shortly after this he went to Paris to study for what was supposed to be a two year period with Jean de Reszke.
European studies, University of Michigan, and World War I era concert singer On August 9, 1914 The New York Times reported that Lindquest was remaining in Paris while many other Americans were planning to return due to the outbreak of World War I. He soon changed his plans, and departed Paris on August, 29, 1914; arriving in Chicago less than two weeks later. With his studies with de Reszke cut short, he enrolled in the music program at the University of Michigan (UM); beginning his studies at UM in the fall semester of 1914. There he studied voice with Theodore Harrison.
In December 1914 he was a soloist in a Milwaukee concert with the Lyric Glee Club led by conductor Arthur Dunham; performed in a Chicago concert sponsored by the Society of American Musicians at Fullerton Hall in a program of songs by Louis Adolphe Coerne; and was a soloist in Handel's Messiah in separate productions with the Flint Choral Union under conductor and UM professor Earl V. Moore and with the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra and conductor Frederick Fischer at the Odeon Theatre in St. Louis.
In January 1915 he was a soloist once again with the MSO in a concert of opera arias in Minneapolis, and the following month he gave a concert at His Majesty's Theatre, Montreal with soprano Pauline Donalda. In April 1915 he was a soloist in Verdi's Messa da Requiem with CSO and the chorus of the Milwaukee Musical Society. He also toured with the MSO in the Spring of 1915 with Marie Sundelius as a fellow soloist; traveling 9,000 miles with the orchestra for performances in 60 different cities. The tour included a performance of 's oratorio Golgotha with the MSO conducted by the composer for a performance in Rock Island, Illinois.
In February 1916 Lindquest performed in Alva Belmont and Elsa Maxwell's "suffrage opera" Melinda and Her Sisters at the Waldorf-Astoria hotel in New York with a cast led by Marie Dressler. He was a soloist with the New York Philharmonic led by Josef Stránský on its tour to Michigan in March 1916 in which he performed arias from Aida and Don Giovanni. He toured with MSO once again in the Spring of 1916. In the summer of 1916 he was a soloist in Edvard Grieg's cantata Landkjenning with the American Union of Swedish Singers.
Marriage, move to New York City, fatherhood, and other performances
In June 1916 Lindquest married soprano Leonora Allen at a country estate just outside Harristown, Illinois. Leonora was a voice teacher at UM who had also been a soloist on the MSO tours. By September 1916 the couple had moved to New York City where Albert had obtained a post as a singer at one of the larger churches. He continued his vocal training with William V. Villonat, S. William Brady, and Herbert Witherspoon in New York City. By November 1916 both Albert and Leonora were working as contracted singers for the Victor Talking Machine Company with whom they made recordings. Some of the songs Albert recorded for Victor in 1916 included "Your tiny hand is frozen", "Sun-blest are you, o golden land", and "My home land".
In December 1916 he was a soloist with the Orpheus Men's Choir of Buffalo led by conductor John Lund. In February 1917 he was a soloist in Felix Mendelssohn's Elijah with Louis Graveure in the title role and Louis Koemmenich leading the Oratorio Society of New York (OSNY) at Carnegie Hall; was the tenor soloist in Hiawatha's Wedding Feast with the Swedish National Chorus directed by Otto H. Bostrom; and returned to Chicago's Orchestra Hall to give a joint recital with Reinald Werrenrath. The previous month he had signed a contract to be the soloist with the Damrosch Orchestra (DO, aka the New York Symphony Orchestra) on its Spring 1917 tour.
The DO's tour began in Wichita, Kansas in May 1917, and in addition to Lindquest included violinist Efrem Zimbalist, contralto Merle Alcock, soprano Nina Morgana, bass Charles Tittmann, and conductor Walter Damrosch as featured artists with the symphony. Some of the repertoire he performed on this national tour included the oratorios Scenes from the Saga of King Olaf by Elgar and Haydn's The Creation; excerpts from the opera Faust by Gounod; and a complete concert version of Saint-Saëns's Samson and Delilah in which he sang the role of Samson to Alcock's Delilah.
After the end of the DO tour, Lindquest went on tour with his wife and the cellist in the summer of 1917; giving performances in the Chautauqua circuit from June to September 1917. On June 16, 1917 they were soloists with the Tri-City Symphony Orchestra in the Reformation cantata given on the campus of Augustana College. In December 1917 he gave a concert with Will C. Macfarlane as his accompanist in Portland, Maine, and returned to Carnegie Hall to perform Gabriel Pierné's La croisade des enfants (English; The Children's Crusade) with OSNY. He also appeared as a soloist with the Philadelphia Orchestra in 1917.