Nellie Counsell, Winnipeg's contralto sensation

© 2024 Christian Cassidy

If you were a music enthusiast in Winnipeg in the early 1900s, chances are that you saw Helen "Nellie" Campbell, (later Mrs. E. M. Counsell), perform. The contralto soloist was a fixture on Winnipeg stages and churches for over 25 years.

Helen "Nellie" Gertrude Campbell was born June 28, 1877, in Middlesex, Ontario, Canada and came to Winnipeg in 1893 with her family. She finished her schooling at the Collegiate Institute on Kate Street.

June 1, 1895, Winnipeg Tribune

Campbell began singing at school recitals and by 1894 was a soloist in the Knox Church choir performing regularly at its services and special concerts.

A Free Press reviewer wrote of her performances in Handel's Samson in May 1895 at age sixteen,  "Outside of the natural appreciation of her efforts on account of her youth ... her performance exceeded in merit any of the others."

At a February 1895 recital at Manitoba College featuring dozens of actors and singers, the Tribune reported that "the lion's share of the applause was accorded to Miss Nellie Campbell for her very excellent vocal selection". 

Campbell was a sensation and had a packed schedule of weekly church services, which included at times travelling to Presbyterian churches outside of Winnipeg, and various recitals and concerts around town.

October 4, 1897, Winnipeg Tribune

Campbell took a break from singing when she turned 18. The Tribune noted, "The friends of Miss Nellie Campbell are wise in allowing this promising young vocalist to rest for a while.... so that some additional strength may be gained for future study." It said she was on the brink of being a brilliant singer and that the right vocal coach and training at that stage in her life was the key to a long career.  

For some of 1896 and the summer of 1897, Campbell attended the Toronto Conservancy of Music to study under Mr. W. E. Haslam.

Campbell returned in October 1897 and resumed her role as the feature soloist at Knox Church. Later that month, she was part of a concert at the Winnipeg Theatre featuring violinist Ernest Du Domain, an instructor at the Toronto Conservancy, and local pianist Frida de Tersmeden. She was also part of the program for the big Sons of Scotland Halloween concert at Selkirk Hall.

In 1898, she teamed up with a local pianist and two other singers as the Prairie City Quartet and toured from September to November as far west as Victoria to positive reviews.

November 18, 1901. Winnipeg Free Press

1901 was a year of great change for Campbell.

In October, she and her brother announced that they would leave the Knox Church choir. Robert was off to New York to further his musical career as a baritone and Nellie was to marry Edward M. Counsell, the branch manager of the Merchant's Bank in Carberry.

The wedding ceremony took place on December 5th at Knox Church after which the couple left on a train to visit New York and cities in Eastern Canada and returned in early 1902. Mr. Counsell left the bank in 1903 to start his own real estate and insurance company which brought the couple back to Winnipeg.

Mrs. E. M. Counsell, the name Campbell went by after she married, took a break from her musical career to have children: Charles (1902); Campbell (1904); and Charlotte (1905).

The few exceptions to Counsell's temporary retirement included a variety concert at Grace Church in July 1904 where her brother, Robert also performed. She also performed at the graduating ceremony for the Winnipeg General Hospital School of Nursing in May 1904 and a concert at a Presbyterian church in Grand Forks, North Dakota in 1905.

May 4, 1908, Winnipeg Tribune

The Counsells attended Augustine Church where Mrs. Counsell became the soloist. Augustine did not have as large a musical program as Knox, so there were few concerts or recitals outside of regular Sunday services.

Mrs. Counsell did a handful of performances in 1907 and 1908 each year, usually as part of a larger musical program. In May 1908, she sang a composition called "Peace" which was written by American hymn writer and composer Arthur Voorhis and dedicated to Counsell after he heard her sing at a musicale in New York City the previous year.

At a solo recital in Augustine Church on November 24, 1908, there was a standing-room-only crowd to see Mrs. Counsell. Charles Wheeler, the architect and Winnipeg Tribune music reviewer, called her "the very head of the contraltos in the city".

As her children got older, Mrs. Counsell held more performances outside of church circles.

In the 19-teens she participated most years at the Manitoba Music Festival and at several charity events during the war, including another solo recital in January 1916 at the Hotel Fort Garry to raise funds for the Canadian Red Cross.

Mrs. Counsell went on a singing tour to Ottawa, Hamilton and Montreal in late 1917 after which she stayed for a time in New York to study with a "world famed vocal teacher" (whom the newspaper article didn't mention by name). She returned to Winnipeg in time to participate in a Christmas music festival at Young Church.

The Women's Musical Club of Winnipeg's Mrs. C. E. Dafoe presented Mrs. Counsell with a lifetime membership in 1921 and she joined their board as vice-president the following year for their busy 25th anniversary season.

In early 1924, Mrs. Counsell provided the musical entertainment at one of Elsie McLuhan's, (mother of Marshall McLuhan), popular elocution recitals at Nassau Baptist Church. She also performed at a benefit concert to support the Community Theatre in March and was one of two soloists who performed at a twilight recital in St. Luke's Church in April.

The final performance of the year, and perhaps of her public career, appears to have been a joint recital with baritone W. David Thomson under the auspices of the Auxiliary of Manitoba College in St. Stephen's Church on December 9.

Mrs. Counsell became very ill in late 1924. She attended the odd meeting of the Women's Musical Club in 1926 then newspaper mentions of her disappeared, aside from social announcements that she and her husband were travelling to the southern U.S. for the winter months.

July 30, 1929, Winnipeg Free Press

On July 28, 1929, Counsell died at the family home at 278 Wellington Crescent. She was 53 years old.

 In a story about her death, the Free Press wrote, "As a girl she gave so much promise for the future as a vocalist, but was content in her life to sing for the people of this city."

The Tribune quoted an unnamed "prominent citizen" who paid tribute to Counsell, "I do not think there is a public charity of an kind in our city that has not been assisted by Mrs. Counsell. The Old Folks' Home, the hospitals, many smaller institutions, and the art itself - music - she was ever ready to assist."

Helen "Nellie" Counsell is buried in Elmwood Cemetery.