Born in
Ottawa, Ontario, Gauthier received musical lessons as a child in
harmony,
voice, and
piano. She made her professional debut singing at Ottawa's Notre Dame Basilica for Queen Victoria's funeral mass in 1901. The custom of the time dictated that North American musicians travel to Europe for training if they desired a reputable professional career, and in July 1902, at the age of seventeen, Gauthier set out for Europe, financed by her aunt and uncle, Zoé, Lady Laurier, and Sir Wilfrid Laurier.
Training in Europe Gauthier travelled to France, where she received private voice lessons from Auguste-Jean Dubulle of the
Paris Conservatory. Nodules on her
vocal cords were problematic, but they were removed surgically. She later began training under
Jacques Bouhy, whom she would later credit for her vocal technique. Albani provided a degree of mentorship to Gauthier during the 30-week tour of Canada. There, she met a Dutch importer and plantation manager named Frans Knoote. Gauthier and Knoote married on May 22, 1911 (divorced 1918). Gauthier studied the music of Java, and began to include this in her repertoire. Her accompanying pianist was Paul Seelig, who had previously been the conductor for the
Kraton of
Surakarta, which afforded Gauthier a number of opportunities. On permission of the Javanese court, she studied the
gamelan, probably being the first western woman with a classical music education to be afforded this opportunity. While living in Java, Gauthier travelled extensively, giving performances in China, Japan, Singapore, Malaya, Australia, and New Zealand. She remained in Java for four years, but with the outbreak of
World War I she decided to travel back to North America, arriving in New York City in the fall of 1914. She gave renditions of three songs by
Maurice Ravel. Her performance then also included American premieres of
Stravinsky's
Three Japanese Lyrics and
Griffes'
Five Poems of Ancient China and Japan. The performance was a great success, and she began to receive invitations to perform premieres of songs by contemporary composers. Stravinsky arranged to have Gauthier to premiere all of his vocal pieces. Gauthier travelled to Paris in 1920 at the behest of the Music League of America. Sent there to arrange a tour of North America by Ravel, she struck up a friendship and professional correspondence not only with him, but also with
Erik Satie and
Les Six. This led to more music being sent to her by various composers that she would premiere in concert. She accepted and premiered almost all works sent to her, the only exception being a refusal to perform
Pierrot lunaire by
Arnold Schoenberg. Through this, Gauthier performed large amounts of contemporary French music across the United States. She also included American music in all of her concerts. Gauthier toured America frequently and returned to Europe in 1922, and again in 1923. She began to explore
jazz music in concert as well, earning her negative reviews by many musical critics. Her 1923 annual performance at Aeolian Hall entitled "Recital of Ancient and Modern Music for Voice" became a historic occasion when she presented the works of
George Gershwin, the first time his works were performed by a classical singer in concert. The first half of the programme presented works considered serious music at the time. She performed both classical works by
Vincenzo Bellini and
Henry Purcell, mixing them with modernist and neoclassical works by
Béla Bartók,
Paul Hindemith,
Arnold Schoenberg,
Arthur Bliss,
Darius Milhaud,
Maurice Delage, and
Swan Hennessy. The second half of her performance would upset the musical establishment, however. She opened with "
Alexander's Ragtime Band" by
Irving Berlin, then performed works by
Jerome Kern and
Walter Donaldson, and finally finished with three works by
George Gershwin: "
I'll Build a Stairway to Paradise", "Innocent Ingénue Baby", and "
Swanee". Gershwin played the piano for these pieces. Important figures in the audience included
Ernestine Schumann-Heink,
Virgil Thomson, and
Paul Whiteman. Although some musical critics panned her decision to include Jazz music, the performance was overall a huge success, and provoked serious discussion among conservative audiences whether jazz music could be considered serious art. Gauthier continued to present music that was thought poorly of by conservative audiences. On some occasions, such as her performances of Gershwin in New York in 1923 and 1925, as well as in London in 1925, this was quite successful. A critic in Vienna welcomed her musical selection as a reprieve from the usual fare of classical performances –
Schubert,
Brahms,
Wolf,
Richard Strauss – while praising her skill with more classical choices. Other performances suffered – she was
booed while performing works by
Heitor Villa-Lobos at the Festival of the
International Society for Contemporary Music in Venice. She became a
celebrity, and continued giving performances across the United States, Europe, and her native Canada. On the sixtieth anniversary of
Canadian Confederation in 1927, she gave a performance in Ottawa which was the first transcontinental radio broadcast in Canada.
Retirement from the stage Illness forced Gauthier to halt giving performances in the late 1920s, but she would return to the stage in 1931, giving a concert in
Havana, Cuba. As time passed she began to engage more and more in teaching, and less and less in stage performing. Her income from teaching was substantially better than from touring. She retired from performing entirely in 1937, and opened a music studio in New York. There she became a founding member of the
American Guild of Musical Artists, serving on its board of governors. She died in late December 1958, in New York City. == Views of critics and audiences ==