ALAN LOVEDAY FUND

Press, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22516, 26 September 1938, Page 16

ALAN LOVEDAY FUND

NEW ZEALAND BOY VIOLINIST

EFFORTS TO PROVIDE FOR STUDY IN* NEW YORK

Alan Loveday,. the noted New Zealand boy violinist, will be entertained at an afternoon tea by the Mayor (Mr R. M. Macfarlane) at the City Council chambers at 3 p.m. to-morrow, so that the public will have an opportunity to meet him. He will be in Christchurch for about 10 days. Loveday's exceptional ability has been recognised by notable visiting musicians, who have advocated sending him abroad to study. The aim of the committees set up in Palmerston North, Christchurch, and Dunedin to further the Alan Loveday fund for this purpose is that he should go to New York with his mother for three years, and study under Louis Persinger, who taught Menuhin, or under' Georges Enesco or Arthur Hartmann, all teachers of international reputation. The original committee in Palmerston North (where Loveday was born) has already £6OO in sight, and the aim is to raise a minimum of £ISOO. which will be vested in and administered by national trustees. The Christchurch and Dunedin committees are now active, and committees are being formed in other centres. It is hoped that Loveday will be able to leave by the end of this year. After Lawrence Tibbett.had heard him play, he said: "There is definitely a place in the world for that youngster, but he should have been away by now. You haven't got a moment to lose." The leader of the Budapest String Quartet, who has an international reputation, heard Loveday play, and expressed the opinion that Alan was the most promising child player he had heard in all his travels over the last 18 years. So impressed were the members of the quartet that they went to Palmerston North to put on a special benefit concert. The present organisation was thus brought into being. Mr Tibbett, Mr John Evans, his manager, who toured with Menuhin, and Mr Stewart Wille, his accompanist, emphatically stated that there need be no doubts about Loveday's ability. Loveday is now 10 years old. When he was under seven. Lord Bledisloe heard him play, and offered to take him to England, but his parents felt was too young.