THE NEW CHORAL SOCIETY CONDUCTOR.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXI, Issue 198, 21 August 1900, Page 2

THE NEW CHORAL SOCIETY CONDUCTOR.

(From Our London Correspondent.)

LONDON, July 13

The Agent-General, in conjunction with Dr. Abdy Williams and Dr. IlifTe, has selected for the position of Lecturer on Music at the Auckland University College and conductor of the Auckland Choral Society Dr. William Edwin Thomas, the organist and choirmaster of St. Clement's, and the conductor of the Philharmonic Society at Bournemouth. Dr. Thomas is 33, and a married man with three children. All his life from boyhood, when he was a chorister for 8 years and a solo boy at Christchureh Cathedral, Oxford, he has lived in an atmosphere of the best music. After being articled to Dr. C. W. Corfe, the organist of the said cathedral, and choragus of Oxford University, Dr. Thomas toolc his degree of Bachelor of Music at Oxford in 1888 at the age of 21, and his doctor's degree at 25, being the youngest doctor of music in any of the universities. Dr. Thomas was for 7J years organist and director of the music of All Saints' School, Bloxham, Banbury, Oxon, and conductor of the Philharmonic Society at Bournemouth; was conductor of the St. Clement's Choral Society. He is an examiner of the Royal College of Music. For the past len years ho- has been, preparing candidates for university degrees and diplomas in music, many of those trained by him having taken high positions in the musical world. He is spoken of as being a man of much more than the ordinary musical taste and ability; in fact, possessingl the real genius of a theorist and choir trainer, devout and earnest, patient and .tactful, and a pleasant colleagric In composition he has had a fair measure of success, several of his works having gone through several editions, and his glees for school concerts have been received with xmqualified praise. The good singing of his choirs has been often the subject of eulogistic comment, and, having been a solo singer himself, Dr. Thomas will be able to give to the excellent voices in New Zealand that thorough and sound training* which has been too often lacking in the past. He will probably sail with his family for the colony about the second of August.