Bertha Carey

Bertha Carey

Bertha (Roxena) (m Morrow) Carey. Contralto, teacher, b Millgrove 25 Jun 1887, d Hamilton 12 Jul 1970; honorary FRHCM 1966. She studied voice at the Hamilton Conservatory and, during the summers of 1908 and 1910, in Florence with Isidore Braggiotti. At first a soloist at Hamilton's Hannah Street Methodist Church, in 1905 she took a similar position at the First Methodist Church and became a founding member of the Elgar Choir. After a recital in Erie, Pennsylvania, her 'full rich contralto of power and beauty' was praised by the reviewer in the Erie Evening Herald 1 Jun 1910. She was a member of the Duet Club for more than 60 years and president in 1928. She joined the Hamilton Conservatory in 1932 and taught voice there until 1966. She examined for the RCMT in the 1960s. Her pupils included her daughter Elizabeth Morrow (m McNairn; soprano, b Hamilton 1921) and Phyllis Mailing. Beth Morrow McNairn studied further in Italy with Mme Lala and has appeared as a soloist with the Cantata Singers and the Vancouver Bach Choir, as well as in Vancouver churches. Bertha Morrow also taught her granddaughter, the soprano Margaret Hutchinson, of Hamilton.

See also Whitfield (George) Carey, Bruce Carey, Edith Carey, Clara Carey, Vernon Carey, Talbert Carey, Flora Carey, and Estelle Carey (all members of the same musical family).