Professor Zimmerman Appears from 3YA

Radio Record, Volume IV, Issue 41, 24 April 1931, Page 6

Professor Zimmerman Appears from 3YA

itminent Austrian Musician

EEE Rew people commence the study of their chosen profession at the age of two and a half years! Yet that can be said of one of the most picturesque musical figures in New Zealand, Professor Zimmerman, of Christchurch. who, after Carrying on for years the musical tradition of his family, has for some years been teaching the violin in

this country, with a'success that is best witnessed by the achievements of his pupils. Professor Zimmerman was born in Vienna, and it was there that his. greyhaired grandsire would take him on his knee and with infinite patience and

hope guide the tiny fingers and the miniature bow, It-was not long, before the old man found that his pupil was a worthy descendant of a line of musicians which extended. back some 300 years, There are manuscripts in Professor Zimmernan’s home in Christchurch, fragile and faded with age, which have been handed down through ten generations. They are compositions of early Zimmermans which show more clearly than tradition just what were the capabilities of his gifted forbears. The paper is yellow with age, and must be handled with the greatest care, but the script, beautifully done in an age when penmanship was a fine art, is as clear as on the day when it was written. The Professor himself has added many fine compositious to this collection of manuseripts. In New Zealand the Professor | is better known as a teacher, and that is not surprising, for he himself was taught by Leopold Auer, perhaps the greatest teacher of the violin the world ‘has ever known. Auer numbered among his pupils Mischa Elman and Heifetz. Few people have had a greater or more happy association with the musieal world than has the Professor. Among his own associates on the concert platform have been Madame Dolores, Madame ‘Travelli, Madame Belle Cole, Signor TFoli, and the great pianist De Konotsky. In his studio by the River Avon, the pupil has a surrounding unique with musical associations, and is taught in an atmosphere that in itself is an enecouragement to the music. It is an Old World room, in which one immediately feels at ease, and there this. musician imparts his knowledge and some of his inspiration to the coming generation. Professor Zimmerman is fulfilling a number of engagements as a solo. violinist at 3YA. He makes his second appearance at the Christchurch Station on Thursday, April 30. He will play to orchestral. accompaniment, . and lovers of the violin, when played by such an artist, can anticipate this broadeast with pleasure,