Of the eight girls who entered the Academy in 1829, almost all had ‘retired from the profession’ by 1837, when the list of ex-students of the Academy was published. Only three seemed still to be earning their livelihood through music, and Sophia Turner was the only one who appeared still to be performing, as a ‘very talented Vocalist.’

That little phrase ‘retired from the profession’ does not mean that the girls thus described over the years were any less talented than their still-working contemporaries, (or even in some cases less engaged with music, which we’ll see in coming weeks). For example, pianist Lydia North was a bit of star during her time at the Academy, receiving medals for her studies, being permitted principal study professors in all her instruments, and playing a Hummel concerto in one of the public concerts. She even composed a ‘quartett for piano, violin, tenor and violoncello which reflects the highest credit upon her.’ The Academy requested her to come back as an assistant professor in 1836, but she had already ‘retired,’ despite her father’s letter to the committee expressing his ‘sense of the advantages which Miss North has derived from her instructions at the Academy.’ What these advantages might have been, we can only guess.

Sophia Turner, on the other hand, had a longer relationship with the Academy. She entered in April 1829 at the age of 18, as an ‘out’ student with singing as her principal study. Within a few months she has been appointed a sub-professor of Italian. She was put in charge of ‘those young ladies who have made the least progress’ – hopefully being permitted to be on the rota for occupying the Academy’s box at the Opera would have been at least some recompense for this rather dismal prospect (her designated date of 8 May 1830 means that she would have enjoyed a performance of Rossini’s Cinderella with Mary Anne Paton in the title role). Her own results in examinations over the coming years were excellent. She was permitted to enter ten compositions into the communal album.

However, all was not entirely well in the relationship between Sophia’s family and the institution. In October 30 her father wrote a letter to the Committee, and while we don’t know what it said, we can have a good guess from the slightly acerbic but still willing reply sent by the superintendent, Frederick Hamilton:

“The pupils of the Academy are bound by the regulations of the institution to assist at all public representations undertaken to promote the views of the establishment, in the present instance of a theatrical representation they are called upon to appear on public, one and all assisting each other in the several departments in which their talents can be rendered useful. A portion of them in the opera now in rehearsal bear the principal characters, the others the less prominent, part of the chorus, but all in all without distinction are assisting each other in forwarding the credit of the institution to which they belong; under the circumstances to abandon a portion of their fellow pupils who take the principal parts would be to withdraw themselves from that aid, countenance and assistance they are bound to give each other, and the institution to which they belong.
Should there be any objection on the part of their parents to their children appearing on the stage, they will be allowed to remain unseen, attended by their governess at the wings, but giving their assistance.”

Clearly, Thomas Turner had a moral objection to his daughter appearing on an operatic stage. His response to the Rev. Hamilton’s letter drew forth a testy official response:

“Sir W Curtis [an Academy director] is decidedly of the opinion that Miss Turner should be compelled to assist with her fellow students in the choruses of the forthcoming operas at the concert room of the Kings Theatre, or cease to be a pupil of the Academy.”

This exchange was part of a wider discussion in the Committee that year around the topic of females on the stage. Such moral objections were not uncommon leading the principal William Crotch himself on occasion to become embroiled in the debate. Crotch had backed a ‘reluctance which the females have shown to going on the stage’ for the second time during his tenure as principal; at the beginning, he admitted that he had ‘endeavoured to persuade the female pupils of the Royal Academy to refuse compliance with the requirements of the Committee who had fully discussed the subject of their appearing as chorus singers on the stage, and determined that there was no impropriety in their doing so.’ Crotch thought that this was ‘an opinion in which I do not stand alone though I may not have a majority on my side, which was that it would eventually be highly injurious to the Academy and was contrary to the wills of the generality of respectable English Parents.’ In Sophia Turner’s case, though, the objection feels as strategic as ethical, given that she sang Italian opera several times in Academy concerts. She would also go on to perform in public around England, although this seems to have been mainly song and sacred music. Still, she was a much-admired singer, and her name was used to sell music, as this advertisement shows.

By 1832 Sophia was an established sub-professor for singing, fielding a large class of pupils. Occasionally parents would object to their girls being placed under one so young and so female, but the Academy would defend their teacher, informing the said parents that she was “an instructress of whom the Committee had the highest opinion” and refusing to move pupils without good cause. Even after ceasing to be a student herself in 1833, Sophia continued to teach until relinquishing her position in October 1834. Having been made an Associate previously, at this point she was uplifted to the rank of Honorary member. A month later she married master cutler Walter Thornhill and her public musical activities ceased. At first she continued to teach, boosting the family income, but soon children started to arrive, and Walter’s business became more successful, and she ceased this as well. Sophia went on to have eleven children and died in 1879. Who knows what role music played in her life after 1834?

Writing Women In: Sophia Turner and the year was 1829

Writing Women In: Mary Postans and the year was 1828