WAINWRIGHT MORGAN

New Zealand Listener, Volume 18, Issue 453, 27 February 1948, Page 20

WAINWRIGHT MORGAN

Isobel Baillie’s Accompanist

URING her New Zealand tour this year Isobel Baillie will have as official accompianist the New Zealand. pianist Wainwright Morgan. Morgan, who was brought up in Christchurch, left in 1934 for London, where. he joined the staff of the Webber-Douglas School of Opera and Dramatic Art. He ‘returned to New Zealand in 1946 after service with the RNZAF.. He was accompanist in London during 1936 for Hubert Carter, Menetta Marriott, Merle and Malcolm Miller, and for several of Cramer’s Celebrity Concerts, and composed the score for Stafford Byrne’s musical play The Laughing Cavalier, produced at the Adelphi Theatre. Appointed musical director of the "Twenty Club" in 1936, he wrote the music for several revues staged by the

club. In 1938 he became associated with Ernest Irving, musical director for Ealing Film Studios, in the music for Herbert and Eleanor Farjeon’s production of An Elephant in Arcady at the Kingsway Theatre. He was pianist for the 1938 season of Grand Opera under Robert Atkins at the Regents Park Open Air Theatre, and in addition continued as accompanist at a number of concerts, playing for Essie Ackland, Dennis Noble, Norman Walker, Noel Eadie, and Adelaide Stanley. In the same year he was associated as pianist with Ninette de Valois, of the Sadler’s Wells Ballet. Isobel Baillie’s first studio recital will be from 2YA at 8.10 p.m. on Sunday, March 7, when accompanied by Wainwright Morgan at the piano, she will sing a selection of songs by Schumann, Grieg, Bach, Brahms, and Arne.