A Violinist Who Loves His Work

New Zealand Listener, Volume 11, Issue 273, 15 September 1944, Page 21

A Violinist Who Loves His Work

ABRIEL SZITAS, the American violinist whose recordings are at present being broadcast from the ZB stations, is a young private in the U.S. Army. His name is pronounced "Zee-tash," with the accent on the first syllable and the "a" long as in "task." He is of Hungarian extraction. Szitas was born 31 years ago, and lives in Detroit, Michigan, where he

plays in the Detroit Symphony Orchestra. He passed through Auckland about 18 months ago, on his way to the Pacific, and returned there last March after a period of active service in the jungle. He spent four months in

Auckland, giving a public recital in May with Sybil Phillips and Moya Cooper-Smith. Formerly Szitas was in the Medical Corps, but he has recently been transferred to the band of his Division, in which (much to his amusement) he plays the clarinet-occasionally helping things out by playing flute parts on the fiddle. One of the reasons for the quality of his playing was evident to friends with whom he stayed in Auckland. He practises anything up to nine hours a day when he is free from military duties. He will spend a whole hour playing slow scales, or working on some single phrase of a musical score. Most of his spare time was spent in this way during his stay in Auckland. Szitas studied in New York under several famous teachers, and has given concerts in various cities of the U.S.A. He considers that bodily fitness is just as important to a violinist as practice.