Isa Kremer

Isabelle Yakovlevna Kremer (21 October 1887 in Belz, Bessarabia, Russian Empire – 7 July 1956 Cordoba, Argentina) was a Russian-Jewish soprano. Born in the Bessarabian town of Belz in 1887, Kremer studied singing opera for two years in Milan, Italy, and made her opera debut in Cremona in 1911. Having returned to Russia in 1911, Kremer successfully performed in operas and operettas in Kiev, Odessa, Moscow, and St. Petersburg. The Russian Revolution surprised her on tour in Constantinople. Between 1918-1920, she cut several records there for the Turkish label Orfeon Record. Via Poland and France, Kremer emigrated to the United States in 1922. There she started a successful career as a performer of folk songs on the concert stage. Her repertoire consisted of songs in 24 languages, including songs in English, French, German, Italian, Polish, Russian, and especially in Yiddish. During the 1920s and 1930s, she regularly performed at Carnegie Hall and the Manhattan Opera House in New York City, toured internationally, recorded for Brunswick, and acted in Vitaphone movie shorts (1927). The song "Mayn Shtetele Belz" from the 1930 musical The Song of the Ghetto was written for and made famous by her, although she never recorded it. A US citizen since 1924, Kremer moved on to Argentina in 1938, where she continued her career despite being blacklisted by Argentinian dictator Juan Perón for her and her Argentinian partner's socialist convictions. She died in Córdoba, Argentina, in 1956.