Around The Nationals

New Zealand Listener, Volume 6, Issue 141, 6 March 1942, Page 20

Around The Nationals

a eee HE soloist in Mendelssohn’s G minor piano concerto, to be played from 2YA, with the NBS orchestra nder Andersen Tyrer on Tuesday, March 10, is Cara Hall, a young Wellington Pianist. But it is sad to have to tell music-lovers of Wellington that this will be her last performance there for some months, as Miss Hall is going to live in the South Island. She intends to go (in her own words) "into rural seclusion, partly for the purpose of engaging in war work, but also to prepare @ repertoire for a proposed visit to America." This trip had been planned before Japan’s entry into the war, and Miss Hall now hopes to reach New York just as soon as conditions permit. While she is rusticating in the South Island, she may be heard from other national stations. 2 % * SONG which most people associate exclusively with Lawrence Tibbett, Wolfe’s "De Glory Road," will be sung from 3YA on Friday of this week (March 6) in a studio recital by Rex Harrison, and listeners may welcome the opportunity to see if there is another way of singing this item than the way Tibbett has made so famous. Some who have heard Mr. Harrison sing the song already have, in fact, compared his singing with Tibbett’s. Mr. Harrison will also sing " E’en As a Lovely Flower" by Frank Bridge, and a song called "How’s My Boy?" attributed to Homer. * * * IANIST and arranger to the Castalian Singers, who were heard from 4YA ‘on Monday, March 2, is Mavis Macdonald, well known in Dunedin musical circles. She is also an organist attached to the First Church of Otago. She studied the organ under Professor V. E. Galway, and the piano with Max Scherek. She has performed concertos with the orchestras of the Dunedin Choral ‘Society, and at organ recitals with Dr. Galway playing the organ. * *% * ALKS written by Mrs. O. J. Gerard, of Napier, and now being heard from 2YA, should be bright and interesting. if Mrs. Gerard’s letter to The Listener, replying to our request for a photograph and biographical material is any guide. Mrs. Gerard outlines her career and then says: "Apart from this I cannot think of anything even remotely interesting to your readers. I may say straightway that my talks are all based on personal experiences, entirely truthful . . . and, within the limits of my pen, entertainingly instructive. . . . She adds that it is a great disappointment that her "geographical position" prevents her delivering the talks herself. Mrs. Gerard is both daughter and wife of naval officers. Her husband is from Canterbury and she met him in Malta. In England she was in charge of various A.R.P. and W.V.S. activities-saw the blitz, and lost her own home through incendiaries (water or sand, Mrs. Gerard?) She brought her children to New Zealand at her husband’s request. Another of her talks will be heard in 2YA’s morning session on Friday, March 13. ,