"POPULAR CHAMBER MUSIC"

New Zealand Listener, Volume 21, Issue 538, 14 October 1949, Page 9

"POPULAR CHAMBER MUSIC"

New:1YA Session for Moderates

OPULAR music "with a difference" is being provided by a new session from 1YA, Four Strings and a Piano, with a singer as guest artist, which will be heard every Tuesday evening until the end of. the year. The .combination is led by Oswald Cheesman (piano), who also prepares the necessary special arrangements of all music played, and the members are Felix Millar (violin), Norman Dimery (violin), Victor Mandel (viola), and Gerald Norris (’cello). It is not an orchestral group, but on the other hand it is definitely not a

dance band or "jam session." Mr. Cheesman was emphatic about that. The object is to present a high standard of light music-"a sort of chamber music of popular entertainment,’ was his definition, "a serious effort to please those with moderate tastes."" Accordingly each session is being carefully prepared and thoroughly rehearsed, and will include gnstrumental solos by the various members as well as music by the group as an ensemble and items by a guest artist. sd On their- opening night, Tuesday, October 11, the group chose selections from the music of Jerome Kern, while the soloist was Stewart Harvey (baritone). Valerie Isbister (soprano) will be the guest. artist on Tuesday, October 18, and vocalists to be heard in later programmes will include Doreen Harvey (soprano), Maurice Tansley (baritone), and Eileen Quinn (soprano). Not. all the programmes have been fully planned as yet, but it is intended to keep each one homogeneous in atmosphere. Thus on different Tuesdays there will be sessions devoted to the compositions of Cole Porter, George Gershwin and others, Musical comedy, excepts from opera and the ballet, folk music, and music with a definite national character will each form the subject of individual programmes, Oswald Cheesman Jis already well known to listeners for both popular and serious music. He is a member of the National Orchestra and his present duties include the writing of special arrangements for local groups of the orchestra. At one time he was conductor of 1YA Studio Orchestra and has played piano concertos with both orchestras. During the war he was musical director of the Kiwi Concert Party in the Pacific, and he has toured New Zealand with prominent visiting artists, the most recent of whom'was Stanley Holloway. Felix Millar, too, has been a member of the National Orchestra, and, is now Leader of 1YA. Studio Orchestra to which the remaining members of Four Strings and a Piano also belong. *