SINGING, HOUSEWORK —AND A DOG

New Zealand Listener, Volume 11, Issue 272, 8 September 1944, Page 21

SINGING, HOUSEWORK —AND A DOG

ARY PRATT (Mrs. _ Ivan Hodding), who is at present touring New Zealand with the Victory Concert Party was very modest about her activities when we went to interview her. Although we knew that she had sung with Heddle Nash, the Budapest Quartet and Lex MacDonald, and had gone on _ tour more than once, especially in the South Island, she was far more interested to talk about her dog. Mary Pratt came out from Scotland as a child, and thoroughly adopted Dunedin, where she has lived ever since. "I have a partiality for Competitions, too," she said, "for it was in the Dunedin Competitions in 1928 that my singing career was ‘launched. I started with Ernest Drake. and have been with him ever since, except for the eight or nine months I was in Australia during 1933." She represented the Air Force in the Otago Queen Carnival in 1940, and was the successful queen, raising £31,000. She has, in fact, appeared on so mary platforms for so many causes that she hardly regards herself as a concert singer only. e "You see, I have to be versatile. In Otago I sing for numbers of different audiences-in fact, for anything that is for a good cause-and what I sing depends on what they want. What I like singing is a different matter. Lieder and oratorio are my favourites." "What do you do outside your singing careér?" "I’m just a plain housewife. Singing is my only real interest. I like gardening and all the other things that women are interested in, but I don’t lead a social life, and when there’s no singing to be done, I just stay at home. My husband is a very good critic of my singing. He’s fond of music, though not actively, but he’s a very keen supporter of his wife! Michael appreciates music, tog — Michael is my spaniel, and he’s very well-known around Dunedin. He'll miss me while I’m away."