Anna Mooney Burch

Anna Elizabeth Mooney, also known by her married name Anna Burch or Anna Mooney Burch, (c. 1862 – died 24 January 1905) was an American soprano. She was a well-known concert singer in oratorios during the 1880s and 1890s.^[1] She was also a prominent singer in churches in New York City.^[2]

Born Anna Elizabeth Mooney,^[3] sources disagree on the location of her birth with various publications stating she was born in either Brooklyn,^[1] Hyde Park,^[4] or Fishkill, New York.^[5] She was the fourth daughter of James and Anna Mooney,^[4] and grew up in the Eastern District of Brooklyn.^[4] She studied singing in New York City with Achille Errani.^[6] By January 1885 she was working as a singer at St. Paul's Methodist Episcopal Church in Manhattan (then located at Fourth Avenue and 22nd Street; now Church of St. Paul and St. Andrew).^[7] She left that post the following April at the time she left the United States for England to pursue studies in music.^[8] There she was a pupil of Achille Rivarde.^[6]

By October 1886, Anna was back in New York performing with the Amphion Musical Society of Brooklyn, with her fellow soloist being the baritone Charles R. Burch^[9] who was the son of minister Thomas H. Burch.^[1] She had previously performed with Burch in 1884 when the pair performed in a concert together with the organist and composer Smith Newell Penfield at Christ Church on Bedford Avenue in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.^[10] She married Charles R. Burch in Brooklyn on December 21, 1886^[3] and thereafter performed under the names Anna Mooney Burch^[4] or Anna Burch.^[11]

In the autumn of 1886, Mooney Burch became a soprano in Charles Mortimer Wiske's Wiske Concert Company.^[12] With this group she performed at the Stillman Music Hall in New Jersey (1886),^[13] Smithsonian Hall in Brooklyn (1886),^[14] and the Brooklyn Academy of Music (1890^[15] and 1891).^[16] Other early concert engagements included performances with the Shubert Society in Manhattan and both the Brooklyn Choral Society and the Cecilia Society of Brooklyn.^[6] In 1888 she gave a recital at Puritan Church in Brooklyn, New York.^[17] For ten years she was a resident soprano at Marble Collegiate Church in Manhattan;^[4] resigning from her position in 1898.^[18] After this, she was a soprano at Tabernacle Methodist Episcopal Church in Greenpoint, Brooklyn.^[4]

In 1890, Mooney Burch performed in two concerts under conductor Theodore Thomas at the Lenox Lyceum.^[19] An illustration of her was printed on the front cover of the October 29, 1890 edition of Musical Courier.^[6] In December 1890 she was the soprano soloist in Handel's Messiah at Jacob's Theatre in Newark, New Jersey with the Shubert Vocal Society;^[20] a work she later repeated with the Ottawa Philharmonic Society (1892),^[21] the Handel and Haydn Society of Boston (1893),^[22] and the Washington Choral Society with an orchestra led by Walter Damrosch (1893).^[23]

In 1891, Mooney Burch toured North America in concerts with English baritone Charles Santley.^[24] In April 1891 she sang the title part in Jules Massenet's oratorio Ève with the Toronto Philharmonic Society (TPS) and Santley performing the part of Adam.^[25] She had previously performed this work at the Lennox Lyceum with Theodore Thomas's orchestra.^[26] She also performed the part of the Widow in Felix Mendelssohn's Elijah with the TPS in 1891.^[27] She later repeated the part of Eve in performances of the oratorio with the New York Symphony Orchestra (NYSO) in Baltimore and Washington, D.C. (1893)^[28] the Montreal Philharmonic Society at Windsor Hall (1893),^[29] and as part of a concert series at the Waldorf Astoria New York with Wiske conducting the Choral Society of Patterson (1897).^[30][31]

In 1892, Mooney Burch was a soloist with the Cleveland Philharmonic (no relation to the present orchestra).^[32] In April 1892 she was a soloist in concerts presented by British tenor Edward Lloyd at Madison Square Garden (MSG).^[33][34] She returned to MSG the following December to perform in concert with the Orpheus Society led by conductor Arthur Mees.^[35] That same month she performed in concerts with the Dutch violinist Johannes Wolff and Portuguese pianist José Vianna da Motta at Palmer's Theatre.^[36] In 1893 she was the soprano soloist in Hector Berlioz's La Damnation de Faust with the NYSO for performances in Baltimore and Washington, D.C.^[37] She had previously performed the work with this orchestra at New York's Metropolitan Opera House.^[2]

In 1894, Mooney Burch was a soloist with Brooklyn Oratorio Society at the Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM),^[38] and appeared in concerts at the BAM again the following year.^[11] In 1897 she sang for the inaugural opening the newly built YWCA building in Harlem, and gave a recital at Barnard College.^[39] In 1898 she was soprano soloist in Friedrich Hegar's Manasse with the Arion Society of Milwaukee,^[40] and performed excerpts from Gluck's Alceste in a concert at New York City's Mendelssohn Hall with an orchestra led by Hermann Hans Wetzler.^[41] That same year she was the soprano soloist in the Shubert Society's performances of Joseph Haydn's The Creation and Berlioz's La Damnation de Faust.^[42]

Anna Mooney Burch died in New York City on January 24, 1905.^[43] She is buried in Cypress Hills Cemetery.^[1]