Distinguished Artists Coming

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 16, Issue 21, 17 November 1950, Page 2

Distinguished Artists Coming

Three distinguished young artists are collaborating in a music recital to be given in Whakatane on Wednesday under the auspices of the local Community Arts Service committee as its last programme for the year. Samuel Artis and his wife, Betty Pierson, are quite recent arrivals in New Zealand and have not yet been heard outside Auckland. Honor McKellar, on the other hand, is a New Zealander from Dunedin. But she too has come recently from England where she studied at the Royal College of Music under an Associated Board Scholarship. Samuel Artis is a fine violinist. He played with the first fiddles in the London Philharmonic Orchestra for three years under such famous conductors as Sir Adrian Boult, Bruno Walter and Serge Koussevitsky. During the war he was a member of the Royal Marines Band which landed on the Normandy beaches soon after D Day. Then, when the war was over, he toured Europe and Canada with the band. Before coming to New Zealand he was for a time musical lecturer and organiser for the Middlesex County Council. Like her husband, Betty Pierson already has a concert career behind her. She has given piano solo recitals for the 8.8. C. At the forthcoming recital in Whakatane she will play both as soloist and as accompanist for her two associate artists. Honor McKellar’s splendid mezzosoprano voice has been heard recently in the course of a tour of broadcasts from the chief N.B.S, stations. She has also given recitals on her own in the main cities of New Zealand and won very high praise from the critics. She has an extensive repertoire of fine songs and in addition to her musicianship there is a fluent knowledge both of. French and German to add distinction to her performance. Altogether this promises to be an outstanding concert. It will form a fitting conclusion to the programmes presented in Whakatane this year by the Community Arts Service.