Robert Easton

Robert Miller Easton (8 June 1898 – 26 May 1987) was a British bass of the mid-twentieth century. He was known both in the concert hall, where he sang in oratorios and other choral works, and in opera, appearing in bass roles at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden and on tour. In concert and on record Easton performed many popular ballads, and was one of the original sixteen soloists in Ralph Vaughan Williams's Serenade to Music, premiered and recorded in 1938. In his later years he was a respected and sought-after adjudicator for singing competitions. Life and career Easton was born in Sunderland, on 8 June 1898. He joined a church choir at the age of six, and studied at Bede Collegiate School, Sunderland. When he was seventeen he joined the army. He was severely wounded in the First World War, having a leg amputated. He was in hospital for more than three years, and while he was there a colleague singled his voice out as an instrument of great promise. That view was confirmed by a well-known singing teacher, Signor Bozzelli , and after being invalided out of the army Easton trained as a singer, studying under Dinh Gilly and Harry Plunket Greene. According to The Times, Easton's career began at the leading British music festivals, "where his strong, vibrant bass was much in demand". By 1921 he was singing, to good notices, in major venues including the Queen's Hall, London. He became known for his singing in oratorios, such as Haydn's The Seasons. He told a reporter in 1929 that he had recently sung in Handel's Messiah on seven successive evenings all round Britain.