Soon after this Mrs. Pierce accepted the position of soprano at the
Church of the Advent, Rev. Mr. Lathrop, pastor; Louis Schmidt,
organist. After two years she joined the choir of the Plymouth Church,
which celebrated its golden anniversary January 12, 1912, Rev. T.K.
Noble, pastor. She was a member and the soprano of this flourishing
church for five years. Mr. and Mrs. Pierce and their two children then
took a trip East with the intention of making Boston their home, but
the longing for California was too strong and after an absence of two
years, during which time Mrs. Pierce was soprano in the largest
Congregational Church of Freetown, Mass., they returned to California
where Mrs. Pierce again resumed her church and concert work, singing
in the Church of the Advent, Mr. Lathrop, and after eighteen months in
Grace cathedral, Dr. William Platt, rector, and William Whittaker,
organist, where she remained as soprano six years. The fine
instruction she had received as a singer enabled Mrs. Pierce to hold
several important positions as teacher, being several years at the
Perry Seminary in Sacramento and also at the Irving Institute, San
Francisco, under Mr. and Mrs. Church. She had a large class of pupils,
many of whom hold important positions today. The position of soprano
of the First Unitarian Church, then the largest and most fashionable
congregation in San Francisco, being offered Mrs. Pierce, she accepted
it, and was for ten years in this very happy connection, Dr. Horatio
Stebbins, pastor, Mr. Louis Schmidt, Mr. J. Humphrey Stewart and Mr.
Henry Bretherick, the present incumbent, being organists. At this
period Mr. and Mrs. Pierce gave up their home in San Francisco, which
had always been recognized for its hospitality and charming musical
atmosphere, always welcoming and entertaining the musicians of the
city and new arrivals, and removed to Berkeley to enter their son and
daughter into the University. Here Mrs. Pierce again took up the
leadership in the Unitarian church choir, then being held in Stiles
hall and until the new church was built she sang but after the service
of dedication of the church she resigned, the singing being of a
congregational form and led by a baritone voice. At clubs and parlor
receptions, Mrs. Pierce is still a favorite ballad singer and is
always greeted with appreciation and pleasure, for her voice though
not so powerful as in its prime, still exemplifies the value of her
early training and fine method of pure Bel Canto. Like the authoress
of this book, she proves a perfect method in youth preserves the
beauty of the voice even unto and beyond the three score and ten. Mrs.
Pierce and Mrs. Marriner-Campbell were the singers at the famous
Chamber concerts given by Messrs. Schmidt and Weil and who were
considered by a patronizing public the exponents of the best music
ever given in California, and at the concerts given by Mr. Henry
Heyman and those of Mr. Jacob Rosewald. Mr. Joseph Maguire's last
appearance in public was when he and Mrs. Pierce sang at a concert
under the direction of Mr. Stephen Leach. They sang the fine old
English duet, When Thy Bosom Heaves the Sigh to tumultuous applause
and were recalled again and again. Before Mrs. Campbell's departure
for Europe, at a farewell concert (held in the Howard Presbyterian
Church, Mission street, before 1800 persons), Mr. Walter Campbell and
Mrs. Pierce gave a most spirited rendering of the difficult old
Italian duet for basso and soprano of Master and Scholar with
tremendous effect. At the music jubilee held in old Mechanics'
pavilion in 1878, Mrs. Pierce was seated in the third row of sopranos
and very willingly took her place, when after the first chorus, Mr.
Zerrahn, the leader, leaned forward and said, "Please, that lady, come
out here," and placed her at his side, so telling and pure was the
carrying quality of her voice that he at once singled her out for the
cherished "front row."
Always associated with the highest efforts in music, Mrs. Pierce is
one of the founders of the successful Musical Association of Berkeley
and also of the New Oratorio Society of Berkeley which has in its
membership many of the most prominent musicians in the University
town, the musical center of California.
A very high compliment was paid Mrs. Pierce on her departure for the
East in 1876 when the Handel and Haydn society of San Francisco, under
the distinguished leader, John P. Morgan, gave her a letter of
introduction to the Handel and Haydn Society of Boston, bespeaking for
her all the privileges which it could grant to a "devoted and well
beloved member of its sister society on the Pacific Coast." This was
the first time this signal honor had ever been given to a member.
One of the most pleasurable remembrances I have of Mrs. Pierce is
associated with a Handel and Haydn concert in Mechanics' Pavilion.
Elijah was given and with Mrs. Campbell and Mrs. Haydn, Mrs. Pierce
sang the immortal trio, Lift Thine Eyes, to tremendous enthusiasm. The
trio had to be repeated three times, so evenly and perfectly were the
voices blended. Later this trio was sung with great success at a
reception given by the Bohemian club. Mrs. Pierce, Miss Wood and Mrs.
Birmingham were the singers.