Harry Woolley Retires

New Zealand Listener, Volume 21, Issue 545, 2 December 1949, Page 12

Harry Woolley Retires

HEN Harry Woolley walked out of the studio at 1YA after the Royal Auckland Choir recital on Saturday, November 26, one of the longest and most useful public careers in music that Auckland has known came to an end. Harry Woolley had been conductor of the Royal Auckland Choir since 1937, but years before that he was a musical enthusiast, a player of several instruments, and a choral conductor. Musically, he can look back a very long way. His first memory, he says, was of play-. ing the piano at a school concert in his native Staffordshire. This must have been some time before he was eleven, because at that age he came to New Zealand. He sang in the choir of St. Paul’s Church until his voice broke. Nowadays, at 61, he does no more singing. His voice is, he says, "horrible." In fect, "a real conductor’s voice.’ From the very Soviantas Harry Woolley had "perfect pitch." Even as a young child he could name any note of the piano on hearing it struck, and this faculty, "rare even among musicians, stood him in good stead over the years of his musical career. Before the first world war he was one of the best-known accompanists in Auckland: When the Bohemian Orchestra was formed in 1914 the late Colin Muston, its conductor, persuaded him to become its regular accompanist, and he played the piano and the bassoon at its opening concert. That concert was not only the first the Bohemian Orchestra put on: it was also the only one for nearly five years. Harry Woolley went away to the war, stayed for four and a half years and came back home with a new bassoon. He was a bassoon player

for several years, until others were available to take his place. He learnt to play the bass trombone, and he took on the drums as well. Although versatile, he had his preferences: he has’ had more pleasure from the tympani, he says, than from any other instrument. Harry Woolley’s career as a choral conductor began in 1930, when he organised the Auckland Commercial Travellers’ Choir. He conducted it for seven years, and then took over the Royal Auckland Choir. ‘Though he has now ended his active service to music in Auckland, the work he has done will long be remembered. Since he is fit and still full of vigour, he will no doubt attend concerts and enjoy music for many years to come, even though the days of his conductorship have ended. Auckland musicians and concert-goers will wish him well in his retirement.

A.R.D.

F.