PEOPLE IN THE PROGRAMMES

New Zealand Listener, Volume 3, Issue 73, 15 November 1940, Page 28

PEOPLE IN THE

PROGRAMMES

R.S.A. Conductor . B. BORROW (above) is conductor of the Dunedin Returned Soldiers’ Association Choir, which is giving a concert on Monday, November 18, at 8 p.m. Station 4YA will relay the first half from the Town Hall Concert Chamber. Mr. Borrow is a native of Dunedin, and began his musical studies there as a pianist and boy soprano under the late Sidney Wolf. He was in the cast of the Dunedin Operatic Society’s first production in 1904. Later, while he was in England, although he was not making a profession out of music, he became a resident student of the Royal Military College of Music, Kneller Hall, London, and studied instrumentation, harmony, and conducting. During the Great War he served with the artillery, and just before the Armistice was called from France to form the Divisional Artillery Band for the occupation of the Rhineland. He was stationed at Cologne until the evacuation. Since his return to Dun. edin he has conducted regularly. In the

programme next week listeners will hear two of Mr. Borrow’s own vocal arrangements.

Secretary-Pianist ERLE CUNNINGHAM (above) is secretary of the Christchurch Eroica Club, which is giving a concert on Wednesday, November 20. Station 3YA will relay the first half of the programme, in which Miss Cunningham will give a piano duet with Mrs. Colin Lamb. The Eroica Club was founded in 1920 by the late Mabel Wybra Ford, and was originally intended to exist purely for the study and advancement of piano music and playing. About 1930 a limited number of vocalists and instrumentalists were admitted. The club sets a very high standard among its members. Some of the Christchurch pianists who have distinguished themselves overseas have been Gladys Lorimer, Marjorie Alexander, Jean McLeod, Peter Cooper. The latest list available shows only 20 per--forming members. A larger number of subscribers, with two recitals annually, provide finance.

Small but not Puny EILEEN JOYCE (above) is the pianist featured by 3YA in the " Famous Artists" series, on Sunday next, November 17, at 2 p.m. Although she is now well known on the concert platform, radio (in England) gave this small Australian the beginnings of a career of which she has made a great deal. For listeners who have only heard her broadcasting, it is hard to believe that she is only five feet tall, and weighs only seven stone. And yet this diminutive artist has made herself famous with piano playing that is anything but puny. Her first success was when she spent her last few pounds to get a record made. Fortunately for her, the director of the recording company heard it and wisely decided that she should be paid for it instead, ;

Another Radio Family AMILIES spring up in radio features like mushrooms in warm rain. An amusing group recently to arrive are "Those Happy Gilmans," whose speciality is comedy. There are six in the family, Gordon Gilman, head of the house; his wife Ethel; Stan, the eldest son, who is at the age of frequent and complicating heart interests; Phyllis, who is 17 and pretty and sophisticated; and young " Wheezy," whose real name, Mansfield Carlyle Gilman, is one of the burdens of his life.

The Gilmans are heard from 1ZB every weekday morning at 10.15 o’clock, For the Forces The luncheon request session from 3ZB, which attracted so much interest during an unbroken run of two years after the opening of the station, is once again a feature of the Sunday programme from the Christchurch station. In the past, every corner of Canterbury has had the opportunity of taking a hand in these sessions, and evidence of the splendid response can be found on the programme files which hold many thousands of letters from 3ZB listeners representing all ages and all walks of

life. The request session recently reintroduced is for the members of the Armed Forces stationed in and around Christchurch, and it is evident from the sessions already broadcast that the men in uniform are enthusiastic about the idea; and from the wide variety of entertainment so far asked for by. the men, the luncheon request. session promises to become once again one of the highlights of Sunday from 3ZB.