PROFESSOR OF MUSIC.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXI, Issue 182, 2 August 1900, Page 6

PROFESSOR OF MUSIC.

Dr. William Edwin Thomas, who lias been appointed to the Chair of .Music at Auckland University and also conductor o\ the Choral Society, is comparatively a young man, having bee» born at Oxford in ISG7. lie was a pupil of Dr. Corfe, and when a boy he possessed a good voice, and lor four successive years sang at the festival services at St. Michael's, Tenbury, when conducted by Sir F. Ovrseley. ifis first; organ work was clone early in the eighties at St. Paul's, Oxford, whero he held the position of deputy organist. A little later on he was appoint ed organist to a church at the villagm of Elesbpro', in Tring, which appoint ment he only held for a few months. He then became organist and choirmaster of the Church of the Cowley Fathers, Oxford. In 1886 he became organist and choirmaster at All Saints' Church, at Bloxham. and it was there he founded a. Choral Society. In 1894 lie was appointed conductor of a Philharmonic Society in Bournemouth, and a year later became organist of St. Clement's Church, in that town. He has composed a Communion Service; also the Madrigal entitled "And Wilt Thou Weep?" which gained a prize c-iven by the Philharmonic Society at Brighton. He has also written somq songs, including "The Holy Child." At the age of twenty-one he graduated Mus. 'fine, and in 1894 obtained his Doctor of Music degree at Oxford.