Items From The ZB’s

New Zealand Listener, Volume 4, Issue 92, 28 March 1941, Page 25

Items From The ZB’s

a | \WINIFRED MARSDEN, the dramatic soprano who was heard in a recent Sunday afternoon programme from 1ZB, was a pupil of Lina Casti, who taught Isobel Baillie (who recently visited New Zealand) and also Caruso and Galli-Curci. Though most of her singing has been done from the concert platform or in the more intimate atmosphere of the music salon, Mrs. Marsden is no newcomer to radio, having sung for the BBC both in the Daventry shortwave and the regional programmes over a period of five years. She confesses to being rather " Jekyll and Hyde," musically speaking, in that while she sings nothing but classical or good ballad music, she finds it easy to compose "low-brow" songs and at present is having half-a-dozen of these published in Sydney. Mrs. Marsden left for Sydney this week and expects to do further broadcast recitals there. * * ONALD NOVIS, the light tenor who is featured with Jan Rubini in the new ZB programme "Romance in Music," is the son of an Englishman who settled in Pasadena, California. It was in and around Pasadena that Novis first made his name. In 1927 he won a radio contest; then came New York appearances in light opera, engagements at Hollywood’s Coconut Grove, and back to New York for broadcasts over the National Broadcasting Company’s network. His repertoire includes lieder, opera, oratorio, folk songs and popular melodies. x * * OME time ago Station 1ZB’s Happiness Club gave a considerable sum of money to Jasper Calder’s Children’s Camp, the gift resulting in an additional dormitory being added to the | camp. This year the proceeds from the Happiness Club Fair, which will be held in the Auckland Town Hall on April 18 and April 19, will be divided among local child charities, and once again Jasper Calder’s work will benefit. * * * TATION 2ZA staged an interesting interview recently with the two singers, Oscar Natzke and Kenneth Neate, who are at present touring New Zealand prior to leaving for America. They were interviewed by Station Director John Brown and were heard singing together "The Gendarmes Duet," while Kenneth Neate also sang "The Lord’s Prayer." Natzke remarked afterwards that for him the thrill of the tour had been singing at Te Awamutu, only a few miles from Matapata where he was born. Te Awamutu had given him a wonderful welcome-home. * INE of 1ZB’s most successful contributions to the Apple Campaign last year was a series of "apple competitions" in which dozens of children took part. This year the competitions started off well with a group of children competing in a "fruit salad" quiz, in which the first prize of half-a-guinea was won by a boy of ten years. There will be an apple competition every Tuesday evening, and children who are unable to be present at the studio are catered for by contests which can be answered by post,