(17) T. J. KIRK-BURNNAND

New Zealand Listener, Volume 3, Issue 60, 16 August 1940, Page 15

(17) T. J. KIRK-BURNNAND

J. KIRK-BURNNAND, who _ has been musical adviser for the NBS over the past three-and-a-half years, is volatile as well as versatile. As a musician he composed, conducted, adjudicated, and performed. He took a leading part in organising inter-Departmental Rugby matches and threw a useful forward’s weight into the scrums. He could be relied upon to take a part in a radio play. He conducted the Band of the Royal New Zealand Air Force. Now, volatile as ever, he turns up as Company Sergeant-Major KirkBurnnand, in the 13th Railway Construction Company, on leave this month from Ngaruawahia. He is 35 years of age. Before he came to work at the NBS Head Office, he was programme organiser for 4YA and after that for 1YA.

He was educated in Auckland, at the Grammar School:and University College, and studied piano and all branches of musical theory with Dr. W. E. Thomas. With Colin Muston he studied the violin. Well Known In Dunedin In Dunedin he soon became widely known. He was conductor for the Dunedin Operatic Society, the Dunedin Grand Opera Club, Royal Dunedin Male Choir, the Dunedin Orphans’ Club, the Kaikorai Band, and was guest conductor for the Dunedin Philharmonic Society. Before then he had worked for many years with Fuller’s, Hugh Ward, and the J. C. Williamson companies, as an instrumentalist, playing the piano, violin, and trumpet. In Wellington he performed as a conductor of orchestras and bands, as studio

pianist, and as a solo pianist. To his credit are several compositions, notably a recent cycle of children’s songs, and he has turned out several pieces of incidental music for broadcast plays. _As a Flying Officer of the R.N.Z.A.F. he became conductor of the Air Force Band,

Musical Memories This busy musical life have given him many pleasing memories. He recalls the Budapest String Quartet as the greatest musical combination brought to New Zealand by the NBS, together with Kipnis. For sheer fun as well as artistry his next favourites are the Comedy Harmonists. Percy Grainger he believes to be the most outstanding composer we have seen-‘"‘a real musical genius." Among local artists he pays a tribute to the younger school of brilliant pianists at present in New Zealand. New Zealand teachers are producing some who are quite outstanding, he said. Many vocalists were good broadcasting artists but he found among singers a tendency to hurry their training. It took years to be a first class musician-singer. Teachers, said Mr. Kirk-Burnnand, should be selected carefully. If teachers charged high fees that did not necessarily mean that they "had the goods." The greatest fault he had to find with New Zealand musicians was that they would try to conduct when they were totally unsuited to the job. There were very few really gocd conductors in the country. Now out of the Air Force grey and into khaki, he admits that he likes bandsmen, " but I don’t like band music very much-except hymn tunes, well played."