Page:Czecho-Slovak Student Life, Volume 18.djvu/438
In 1921 Mr. Oumiroff visited Chicago and in the same year was engaged by President Bradley of the Bush Conservatory of that city for the faculty of this nationally known institution. His success here was little short of phenomenal. Of the concerts given by the members of the faculty his were most popular. The numerous pupils who eagerly put themselves under his tutorship attested to the soundness of his pedagogical methods. The warmth of his welcome is illustrated by the favorable comment of W. L. Hubbard in the Chicago Tribune: “The voice is without question one of the loveliest . . . that the world of baritone singers can call its own today . . . He is a vocalist with but few equals in the concert world today.”
In the summer of 1923 Mr. Oumiroff re-visited Europe. He spent three weeks in Paris renewing old friendships and coaching some of his former pupils. Then he visited Prague, Dresden, Baden-Baden and other cities, giving several concerts at each of his stopping places. He was offered a concert tour in Germany by one of the German managers, but he declined the offer in order to return to Chicago for his season there.
Immediately upon his return to that city Mr. Oumiroff opened his present studio at the Fine Arts building. This studio, because of its beautiful decorations and art collections, gathered there, has become famous in Chicago musical and artistic circles. There are so many glowing accounts of this display of Mr. Oumiroff’s taste that one is tempted to allow the singer’s admirers to speak for themselves.
“An interview with Boža Oumiroff isn’t at all what it should be,” says Amy K. Caroll in The Musical Leader of Chicago, “A professional conversation with a teacher of voice would properly deal with vocal problems, with breath control, with enunciation, with ideas of nuance and interpretation, and other shop talk.
“Somehow, during the hour I spent recently at the Oumiroff studio in the Fine Arts building, the conversation would veer in other directions—to the studio itself, one of the most beautiful in Chicago. The Chinese embroideries on the walls are things at which to marvel, and there are cloisonne vases actually from the Imperial Palace at Peking, the holy of holies in the Forbidden City. There is a guest book with many pages filled with distinguished names, Princess Antoine Radziwill, Etelka Gerster, Princess Henri de Battenberg and many others. (This same book, by the way, bears the stamp of war-time confiscation by the German government—a whole story by itself.) And then there is a gorgeous mural painting by Alphons Mucha, and on the opposite wall is a lovely allegorical scene by František Ženíšek.”
The temptation is great to let Mr. Oumiroff’s critics and interviewers tell the rest of the story, but this purports to be merely a biographical sketch. That one extract, therefore, must suffice.
There is more to he said, however, of the success of Mr. Oumiroff’s efforts as a pedagogue. Only a few examples can be cited here, but these show the significance of Mr. Oumiroff’s work. For instance, the Northland Trio, the famous group of three Chicago singers whose recitals have a unique reputation, both in this country and in Europe, is still intermittently coaching with this eminent baritone. He has also coached Mme. Elina Orr Gross, formerly of the “No, No, Nanette” Company. Dennis King, popular star of the “Vagabond King”, and eight other members of the cast studied with the artist almost thruout the Chicago engagement. Prof, Albin Polášek, the eminent Czech sculptor and baritone, and Dr. John Minnema, dean of Elmhurst College, are also of the Oumiroff studio.
Not only as an artist and teacher, however, is Mr. Oumiroff notable, but also as a man. “Kindness is the outstanding characteristic of the man”, says one Chicago interviewer, and similar phrases appear in almost every notice. His generosity was well displayed in his philanthropic services,