Ethel Mann
Born on the 3rd September 1884 in Pietermaritzburg; died in Johannesburg (date unknown). Contralto and teacher of singing and elocution.Ethel Mann and a sister came to Johannesburg with their parents in a convoy of 22 wagons in 1889. She was first educated at the Government school in Von Brandis Street, later at the Green Hill Convent School in Bloemfontein. During the South African War, Mrs Mann and her daughters remained in Johannesburg where Ethel became known as a juvenile singer, particularly at the mines’ Recreation Halls, where concerts were given each month. After the war, she entered the RAM to study singing under Arthur Thompson and elocution under Katie Thomas. By 1905 she had obtained teaching diplomas for singing and speech and was the possessor of several medals for artistic proficiency.
When she returned to Johannesburg in 1906, Ethel Mann was in great demand as a singer at concerts of all descriptions; after 1917 also at the organ recitals of Jahn Connell. She was the Reader at the performance of Mendelssohn’s Athalie by the St George Presbyterians on 29 November 1916; gave a rendering of Elgar’s Carillon to orchestral accompaniment in July 1926 and in 1930 she took the part of Jocasta in Oedipus rex when it was produced by Connell in the City Hall. Ethel Mann went on a concert tour of South Africa with Adolph Hallis in 1927 and in 1928 she presented a recital of vocal works by the South African composers Henry Lissant-Collins, Bruce Lezard and Bertha Frankel. In 1932 she sang at three concerts given by the visiting song composer and examiner Albert Mallinson. She had been a member of Maud Harrison’s Conservatoire staff from 1911 to 1919, and rejoined it in 1927. She stayed on until Maud Harrison married in 1930, and then established her own college, the Barnato Park College of Music and Drama, where she taught until her retirement in 1953.