CENTENNIAL FEATURE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 29 August 1939, Page 4

CENTENNIAL FEATURE

BIG MUSICAL PROGRAMME.

CONCERTS AND COMPETITIONS.

A feature of the Centennial celebrations will be the presentation of a comprehensive programme of music and drama. All the competitions being promoted for the occasion will be national in scope and the controlling body is the National Music Committee, which is assisted by provincial music committees and sub-committees to be set up in Masterton and in certain other provincial towns. The duties of the Masterton sub-committee will be to organise the performances and auditions for the selection of lodal;winners in order that they may compete in the finals to be held in Wellington; ’

The principal features of the musical celebrations include the engagement of a conductor and musical adviser from England; an orchestra to be made available by arrangement with the Central Committee; the assembly of a Centennial choir of sixty voices from all parts of the Dominion to perform in the four centres; choir competitions to be held in each centre, culminating in a final competition in Wellington, these contests to be completed before the end of March, and the winning choir to tour other centres (first prize £125, second £5O and third £25); four principal singers—soprano, contralto, tenor and bass — are to be engaged and made available 'for concert work and to take leading parts in choral work; chamber music competitions for string quartets to be held in the centres, with the final in Wellington (first prize £5O, second £25): an opera will be presented. if possible, in the centres; a Maori musical festival is to be arranged; a dramatic competition for the production of one-act plays to be held in each centre, with the final in Wellington (first prize £5O. second £25); competitions for original orchestral and choral works and for stage and radio plays (prizes in each, first £7O, second £30); music and dramatic festival in each centre to be held at stated periods during May and June, 1940. the Centennial choir, orchestra and principal singers to be available. The suggested date for the Wellington music and dramatic festival is June 19 to 30, 1940.