JOAN HAMMOND OPENS TOUR NEXT WEEK

New Zealand Listener, Volume 15, Issue 381, 11 October 1946, Page 28

JOAN HAMMOND OPENS TOUR NEXT WEEK

Opera Star Who Drove Ambulance in Blitz

Australian operatic soprano, will give concerts in Christ|chureh, Dunedin and Wellington ‘next week-of which details appear in the programmes printed'in this issue. The first concert at Christ‘church will begin at 8.0 p.m. on Tuesday, October 15; the second will. be. at Dunedin on the following Thursday; and | the third at Wellington on the following | Saturday. These concerts will be so ig by 3YA, 4YA, and HAMMOND, the famous

2YA respectively. She will sing again in Wellington on Tuesday, Oc tober 22; and in Auckland on Tuesday and Thursday, October 29 and 31. Her accompanist will be thee Belgian-born pianist, Raymond Lambert. Fs % * NE of the first questions asked of Joan Hammond on her return , to Australia recently was her advice to students eager to go to Europe. "For the time being, I would advise young singers not to go abroad to study," she said. "The Continent, of course, is out of the. question for some time, and the conditions in England, with food difficulties, high prices, transport problems, and scarcity of good teachers are not very conducive to study. But a move is afoot to improve conditions for students from the Dominions. A fund, sponsored by the Victoria League, will be used to build and maintain a London hostel for music _and arts students. Just before I left, Dr. Mal--colm Sargent. Benno

Moiseiwitsch and I gave a _ concert for this fund. The hostel would _make life easier and happier for students by, for instance, making available to them studios where they can practise and make a noise-because no one 'wants you when you are studying. This ‘Club will help, too, in providing a place for students to meet those speak|ing their own language, thus avoiding. ‘the dreadful loneliness that a young student feels on first going abroad. — | "Before the war everything was done -on the -Continent to help students," | Joan Hammond said. "They were able _to hear operas and concerts for 6d and. | 1/-; they received free dental and med|ical attention; and they were able to ) live cheaply." | At the outbreak of war Miss Ham- | mond tried to enlist in the WRNS, but — | Was not accepted because of her injured | arm. So she joined an ambulance unit | as driver-it was known as the "Cinderella" force. ee

"We were kept so’ busy during ‘the blitz that I was forced to cancel ‘many concert engagements. It. was rémarkable what one became used to. The healthy outdoor life that I had lived -in Australia stood mé in good stead" for the conditions in the ambulance unit. Even during the winter months I slept in: the open beside my ambulance with only a roof over my head and no ‘sides in’ the building at all. It was either ‘that; or sleeping in a stuffy, ‘small overcrowded room. We aur to wine ened our ‘fle

Deg? and get what sleep we could shat way." > Besides her: ‘aecbulenee work ; : deoet Hammond’s war workincluded for ENSA and CEMA entertaining. troops. Miss Hammond's. last.. performance. before she left, England | was'-in » Verdi's "Requiem," and. she, isto sing this work at her first ‘concert on. her, return ‘to London, ‘with. the: BBC. Symphony §Orchestra, conducted ‘by John’ _Barbirolli. Though she left Australia a champion golfer, she ‘had’. time..for. Only three games during the war. All these were played in Scotland. "Some of my’ shots were brilliant, but some were "just ater. rible,"’ she remarked. Before’ she left Erigland. ste" iraqaived many létters. from grateful housewives in England. asking her to thank ‘the Australian, people for’ their’ wonderful food :parcels. "Tt is hard to imagine how excited one,.can’ get" at: the: sight* of a ‘banana ‘or. a tin .of; passion-fruit juice," she added, "I. ‘used to; hoa ti. 4-0 greedy!"