Miss Brown has sung in quite a number of the larger towns and cities of Massachusetts, in which State she is scarcely less a favorite than in New Hampshire. She has appeared at concerts in company with some of the most eminent artists of the country (such as, for instance, Professor Eugene Thayer, J.F. Rudolphsen, Myron W. Whitney, Mrs. Julia Houston West, Mrs. H.M. Smith, and others), and always with fine success. In her own city and state she enjoys a popularity unequalled by any other cantatrice, her beautiful voice and many excellent traits of character winning her the warmest esteem of all. The people of Dover are very proud of her, and greatly delighted that one of their number is received with such marks of enthusiastic favor in other States. The Dover papers always readily record these triumphs, and proudly speak of her as "our prima donna."
In November, 1874, our subject sang in Steinway Hall, New York, and was highly complimented by several of the papers of that city.
"The Gazette," Nov. 4, 1874, said,—
"Miss Nellie Brown, born and bred among the lulls of New Hampshire, possesses a voice of rare power and beauty, which she has diligently labored to cultivate and improve by close and unremitting study. She has also a rare charm of manner, which, united with her exquisite singing, won for her an enthusiastic reception."
Another paper thus referred to her:—
"Miss Brown is not a New-Yorker, but resides at Dover, N.H., where she is the leading soprano in the principal church. Her stage presence is quite prepossessing. She sang 'Salve Maria,' and 'Robert toi que j'aime,' with very good effect, besides assisting in several duets and quartets. She possesses a very good voice; and, although of light calibre, it is even now able to fill a hall like Steinway."
She has appeared at concerts in Washington, D.C., Portland, Me., Baltimore, Md., and St. John, N.B. In December, 1874, Miss Brown visited the national capital, where she sang in a series of concerts given in Lincoln Hall under the auspices of the Abt Society. Of the part taken by her in one of these "The National Republican" said,—
"'La Prima Vera,' by Miss Nellie E. Brown, was beautifully and artistically rendered, the lady possessing a beautiful, full, round voice, which blended harmoniously with the perfect ease and faultless execution which graced her performance. It being her first appearance before a Washington audience, the expectation formed of her excellence in an artistic sense was more than realized. 'Nobody at Home but Me,' sung by the same lady in reply to an encore, more fully, if it were necessary, stamped her as an artist of the first class."
I believe I have already intimated that the very high esteem in which Miss Brown is held arises not alone from her possession of charming lyric qualities, but also from her obliging disposition and engaging manners. She has ever been the true artist; earnestly devoted to the fullest development of her own musical powers, but not envying those of others; loving music intensely, as something sacred, and always anxious to aid in extending its benign influence. The people of Dover, of Haverhill, of Boston, and other places, hold her in grateful remembrance for a frequent exercise of those generous impulses that have caused her to often sing without charge at concerts given for the benefit of many good objects.
As one among her many acts to benefit the young, to inspire them with a love of the beautiful in music, I may refer to the "Centennial Musical Festival" originated by her, and given under her direction in Boston on the evenings of May 16 and 17, 1876. For these occasions she had carefully instructed fifty young girls to perform the beautiful cantata of "Laila, the Fairy Queen," a juvenile operetta. This charming composition is admirably adapted to inspire a love of the beautiful in art, and to nurture sentiments of Christian kindness. The following is in brief the plot:—