Sibyl Sammis-MacDermid

Sibyl Mary Sammis-MacDermid (May 12, 1876 – November 5, 1940) was an American soprano singer and voice teacher, based in Chicago in the 1910s, and in New York City after 1921.

Early life and education Sammis was born in Illinois, the daughter of Oscar Fitzgerald Sammis and Julia Bogue Sammis. Her father was a miner in the Dakota Territory when she was a girl. Writer Hobart Chatfield-Taylor was her cousin. She went to Chicago to study with Ragna Linne, and pursued further studies in London and Paris. In 1907 she sang at a benefit concert to raise money for a hospital in Iowa. She made several recordings on the Victor label in 1910. She was a soprano soloist with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in 1910 and 1911. She was a church soloist, and taught voice students from her studio in Chicago. Her husband accompanied her in some recitals, and she sang his compositions. She also sang songs by Carrie Jacobs-Bond and Lily Wadhams Moline. Alma Voedisch was the MacDermids' manager.

In 1919, Sammis-MacDermid organized an all-female touring quartet, the Sibyl Sammis Singers. from some of her best students. She gave a joint recital with baritone Fred Newell Morris in Indianapolis in 1922. Also in 1922, she gave a five-week master class at a music school in Kansas City. She posed at the wheel of an Oldsmobile car as an endorsement for the brand. She was vice-president of the Society of American Musicians in Chicago.

Publications

"Silence and Harmony" (1918, short essay in Christian Science Sentinel)

Personal life Sammis married Canadian-born composer James Gardiner MacDermid in 1909.