Alfred Kelleher

Alfred Kelleher, a professor music of San Francisco, began the study of his profession at a very early age in London, England, and while still very young was church choir boy at Brompton Oratory, London, being first engaged as soprano and then as tenor.  He received his musical education at the Royal Academy of Music, London, studying under Manuel Garcia, who was the teacher of such noted men as Marchesi, Stochanson and Schultze.  Garcia wrote his method of teaching from the researches of the laryngoscope, of which instrument he was the inventor.  Prof. Kelleher came to New York in 1869, and was a member of the first English comic opera company in this country.  Several years later he came to the Pacific coast, and he and his wife, nee Susan Galton, a young lady of ability and talent, and a niece of Louisa Pyne, of New York, made engagements with Maguire until in April, 1874.  In July, following, Prof. Kelleher accepted the appointment of teacher of vocal music in Mills College, and since that time he has filled this position with marked success, having under his tutelage over 1,000 pupils.  For several years he has been a teacher of music in Miss Lake's seminary, and among the noted singers who were under his instruction there are Marie Barnard, Emma Nevada, Lily Post, Gracie Plaisted and others; and during all this time he has had large classes of private pupils.  He is very thorough in his system, and his career as a vocal instructor has been one of marked success.

     Prof. Kelleher is probably the only pupil on the coast of Manuel Garcia, the inventor of the laryngoscope, from which he wrote his method of singing.  This instrument is now used by medical professors for discovery of throat trouble, and its efficiency is attested by the highest medical authority.

 

Transcribed 9-6-04  Marilyn R. Pankey