PERSONALITIES of the week

Radio Record, Volume VIII, Issue 16, 26 October 1934, Page 8

PERSONALITIES

of the week

THE BRUNSKILL BOOM MELBOURNE grand opera audiences have been electrified by the singing of Muriel Brunskill, contralto principal in the new opera company, which includes some of the best British stars. She is the sensation of the season. Born in 1900 in Kendal, Westmoreland, she was educated at the local high school. Her list of notable engagements since her first debut includes the following festivals. Three Choirs, Leeds, Norwich ard Handel. She has sung at Chicago and Cincinnati, and has dore much recital work. She has sung principal contralto roles in rhe British National Company (1922-1927), and also at Covent Garden. Her chief hobbies are her nursery, her home and travel, A MATTHAY PUPIL [RENE SHARRER is a true Londoner who received her training under Tobias.Matthay (who, by the way, gave us a round dozen brilliant men and women pianists). This also won for her two important scholarships which led indirectly to her first public recital] at the Bechstein Hall at the age of 16. Since then she has made a great name for herself touring and performing with the pick of the British, German and American orchestras. Critics. rave

about her playing. Here is a sample: "Miss Sharrer played with a white fire in which all things beat warm and high. Akin was ner versions of the eager, quasi-rhapsodic beginning; while in the slow movement each phrase was one more facet upon dreamful fancies become music, and to beauty." A COMICAL LIVERPUDLIAN UTOBIOGRAPHY a la Tommy Handley: "Born in Liverpool After school entered corn merchant’s of-

fice,, where learned to flick corn with ineredible accuracy at adjacent office windows, Became commercial traveller by day and entertainer by night." Tinding he could make more in one night entertaining than ip six days selling toys, etc., entered theatrical profession seriously. Went to London, expecting managers to fall on his neck, and found himself pushed into tne chorus at Daly’s. He managed to secure the part of understudy to the comedian, and, when the latter was "off"? (through eating a _ surfeit of lampreys or something), played the part. Since then he has never looked back-except to look at a pretty face or see if a policeman was following him. During the war he served with the Kite Balloon Section of the R.N.A.S. After demobilisation he played in the musical comedy "Shanghai," in a concert party, and finally in his famous music-hall sketch, "The Disorderly Room" (in which he appeared at Royal Command Performance in 1923). While in the Palladium revue "The Whirl of the World" (1926) was offered his first radio ergagement-and has broadcast nearly 300 times since. A lady called Jean Allistone was in radio shows with him. During a lull in the conversation he proposed to her. Greatly to his astonishment she accepted him, Greaty to her astonishment, he marricd er. A SELF-MADE MUSICIAN USIC, like, commerce, has its "selfmade men." Such a man is Nathaniel Shilkret. Possessed of much more musical talent than worldly wealth. Mr. Shilkret was compelled to devote the earlier years of his career to playing the clarinet in symphony orchestras and the piano in small orchestral combinations at hotels and theatres. His native ability and ambi-

tious energy could not be denied, and these, aided by an intelligent grasp of new opportunities which were continually arising, soon enabled him to become a leader in the field of good music of the lighter sort. To-day, while only just over 40, he has an enviable reputation as a conductor, composer and arranger, and his records never lack interest and artistic finish. "SAXOTIVELY YOURS" [Ty a pamphlet in which Rudy Wiedoft gives useful hints on how to play the saxophone, and which contains some excellent studies for sax-players, Rudy signs himself "Saxotively yours." Rudy played his chosen instrument when he was six. He was probably the first man to introduced the: saxophone in a dance orchestra. He eats, lives and speaks saxophone, and he has perhaps the fastest tongue in the world. His "single tongueing" is simply marvellous, and those who know him even by his records are soon converted to the possibilities of an instrument that is certainly more sinned against than sinning. He is a virtuoso with fine tone, taste and skill. A BORN MIMIC . BECAUSE she made her debut in Bngland with a trans-Atlantic reputation, Ann Penn js generally believed to be an American. But she was born in England. She entered the chorus In New York and worked up to become a musical comedy "star." She recrossed the "herring pond" to appear in London in musical comedy. Soon after she arrived she entertained friends, including a theatrical manager, with impressions of London music-hall stars. The manager was so impressed that he sent her to Archie de Bear, founder of the famous Co-optimists, who was about to produce a revue. At the audition de Bear asked her to imitate a certain popular artist. She did so, to the de-. light of everyone-including the subject of her imitation, who was hidden: behind the scenes. She was engaged immediately, and has since become famous for her impersonations in vaudeville, revue and broadcasts. She is a born mimic. She imitates people uneonscionsly while she is with themmuch to the amusement of the onlookers. Since she first broadcast five years ago she has impersonated two artists who failed to arrive for the programme, and another time she imitated an artist who was late. until the genuine article turned up and was able to "take over." If Ann Penn spent too much time on the premises at Broadcasting House it might adversely affect the discipline amorg the artists-careless-ness wonld creep in with so versatile a substitute at caD