SOPRANO: We would guess when folks hear of an American soprano from Bradford, thoughts would immediately turn to the Diva Marilyn Horne. She, of course, is a mezzo soprano.

The lesser known soprano to which we refer is Inez Barbour Hadley, born in Bradford on Sept. 23, 1879. Though she was neither a composer nor a conductor, she was president of the National Association of American Composers and Conductors from 1937 to 1971.

She trained as a lyric soprano in Europe. A 1913 reviewer described her as “a splendid looking woman of appealing charm, of warm temperament, of perfect poise and above all of glorious voice.”

She was a soloist at the American premiere of Mahler’s Symphony No. 8 in 1916, and sang with the Tokyo Symphony in 1930. She spoke to community groups on musical subjects, too.

Inez married Henry Kimball Hadley, a composer, and often performed his songs.

In 1920, his opera Cleopatra’s Night bowed at the Metropolitan Opera, with Hadley conducting it — the first American composer to conduct his own opera at the Met.

He founded the National Association of American Composers and Conductors in 1933. After his death, she took over the organization and led it for over 30 years.

In 1944, she launched the SS Henry Hadley, a Liberty ship used in World War II.

Barbour made dozens of lateral-cut recordings — where a stylus cuts side to side on a record, the norm — on the labels of Victor, Columbia, Zonophone, Okeh and Brunswick.

She also released vertical cut recordings — an early method of audio recording by which a stylus cuts a vertical groove into a phonograph record, also called hill-and-dale recording.

The Newberry Library in Chicago has a collection of Barbour’s and Hadley’s programs and posters.