Alma Gluck
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Alma Gluck (born Reba Feirsohn; May 11, 1884-October 27, 1938), was an American soprano, one of the world's most famous female singers at the peak of her career (around 1910). Marcia Davenport was the child of her first marriage (to Bernard Gluck); Alma Gluck later married violinist Efrem Zimbalist and had two children, Efrem Jr. (Stephanie Zimbalist's father) and Maria.
Born to a Jewish family in Iaşi, Romania, Gluck moved to the United States at a young age. Although her initial success came at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City, Gluck later concertized widely in America and became an early recording artist.
Her recording of Carry Me Back to Old Virginny for the Victor Talking Machine Co. was the first celebrity recording by a classical musician to sell one million copies. Gluck was a founder of the American Woman's Association. She retired to New Hartford, Connecticut to raise her family in 1925. Alma Gluck died at the relatively young age of 54, of liver failure.
