SUMMER TOURS BY LOCAL ARTISTS

New Zealand Listener, Volume 22, Issue 550, 6 January 1950, Page 16

SUMMER TOURS BY LOCAL ARTISTS

URING the next few weeks several local artists will be on tour of the National stations in the North and South Islands. Anthony Larsen (baritone) and Doris Sheppard (piano) will be heard in the South, and Maurice Larsen (tenor, brother of -Anthony Larsen) in the North. Patricia Moore (soprano) will be heard in both Islands. In February, Dorothy Downing (piano) and ‘Thea Smith (contralto) will also be heard from various stations. Anthony Larsen and Doris Sheppard will be heard in a series of recitals from 3XC, 4YZ, 4YA and 3YA, starting on Wednesday, January 11. They will give duo and solo recitals. Anthony Larsen studied at the Royal Academy of Music in London for two years on a rehabilitation bursary after the war, and continued for another year at his own expense. It was there that he met his wife, Doris Sheppard, who accompanied him, back to New Zealand last January. a professor of piano at the Academy. Before the war she recitals with Robert Pikler in India, and also sang the leading role in the first performance in. that country of Elgar’s Dream of Gerontius -for besides being a pianist she is an accomplished mezzo soprano. In one of her recitals here she intends to accompany herself in a series of songs by Fauré. Anthony Larsen will probably sing Schumann’s Dichterliebe at one of his recitals, as well as songs by Moeran, Rubbra, and Ivor Gurney. The dates of their recitals are from 3XC on January 11 and 13; from 4YZ on January 15 and 17; from 4YA on January 19 and 22; and from 3YA on January 25 and 27. Patricia Moore, the soprano who went to Australia three years ago to study at the Sydney Conservatorium under Dorothy Helmrich, has returned home for a short visit, and will be heard in a series of studio broadcasts this month. Miss Moore recently sang the soprano role in Brahms’s German Requiem at the Sydney Town Hall, and during past

years toured several times with the Sydney Opera Group, taking leading roles in such operas as Aida, Martha, and Hansel and Gretel. This year she toured Australia as assistant soloist with the New Zealand pianist Peter Cooper, under the auspices of the Arts Council. of Australia. She has broadcast from the national stations of the ABC and will be singing from them again upon her return to Australia. Patricia Moore will be heard from 2XA>on January 12, 15, and 16; from 1YZ on January 19, 20, and 22; from 2YZ on January 24, 25, and 27; and from 3YA at dates to be announced later. Valerie Simpson, a Petone soprano who has been studying at the Sydney Conservatorium under Roland Foster for: the past 18 months, will be heard in two studio recitals from 2YA on January 17 and 22. Miss Simpson achieved consid-. erable success in Australia, and in 1948 won the Under 21 Operatic Aria contest, from 104 contestants, as well as singing in Conservatorium Scenes from Opera, where she took such roles as that of Elsa from Lohengrin. Last year she won the dramatic soprano championship at the annual Eisteddfod, and reached the semi-finals in the "Sun" Aria contest out of 180 competitors. She is at present in Petone visiting her family and expects to return to Sydney in February for a further year’s study, In her broadcasts from 2YA Miss Simpson will sing a selection of operatic arias, lieder, and art songs. Maurice Larsen, the Christchurch tenor broadcast from 2XA on January 2 and 4, and he will be heard from there again on Monday, January 9. He will also sing from 1XH on January 13, 15, and 18; and from 1XN on January 20, 22, and 24. Starting early in February, Dorothy Downing (pianist) will give a series of Fecitals from various stations, and Thea Smith (contralto) will be heard in a similar series during that month. Fred« erick Page (piano) will also go on @ short tour early in February.