Mme. Julia Claussen was born at Stockholm, Sweden, the land of Jenny
Lind and Nilsson. Her voice is a rich, flexible mezzo-soprano, with a
range that has enabled her to assume some contralto roles with more
success than the average so-called contralto. In her childhood she
studied piano, but did not undertake the serious study of voice until
she was eighteen, when she became a student at the Royal Academy of
Music, under Professor Lejdstrom (studying harmony and theory under the
famous Swedish composer Sjogren). Her debut was made at the Royal Opera,
at the age of twenty-two, in _La Favorita_, singing the role in Swedish.
Later she went to Berlin, where she was coached in German opera by
Professor Friedrich at the Royal High School of Music. Her American
debut was made in 1912, in Chicago, where she made an immediate success
in such roles as _Ortrud_, _Brunnhilde_ and _Carmen_. She was then
engaged at Covent Garden and later sang at the Champs Elysee Theatre,
under Nikisch, in Paris. For two years she appeared at the Metropolitan.
She has received the rare distinction of being awarded the Jenny Lind
Medal from her own government and also of being admitted to the Royal
Academy of Sweden, the youngest member ever elected to that august
scientific and artistic body. She has also been decorated by King
Gustavus V of Sweden with Literis et Artibus. In America she has made an
immense success as a concert singer.