AUSTRALIAN PIANIST.

Auckland Star, Volume LXV, Issue 5, 6 January 1934, Page 6

AUSTRALIAN PIANIST.

BROADCASTS IN NEW ZEALAND Mr. Laurence Godfrey Smith, pianoforte professor at the Conservatorium of Music, .Sydney, arrived by the Wanganella this morning, under contract to the New Zealand Radio Broadcasting Board. He will be on the air first at Auckland, then at the other centres. Referring to gramophone records and music over the air, Mr. Smith said people who had never formerly been interested in music had developed a keen and discriminating ear. There had been a wonderful advance in recording, and this had made for public appreciation. Mr. Smith said he enjoyed broadcasting. He had received appreciative letters from the furthermost parts of the Commonwealth, and when he went before the microphone he imagined he was playing to an audience of listeners far and near, and not merely sitting before a piano in a bare, empty room equipped with a little microphone. In Mr. Smith's opinion pianoforte music is aa popular as, or more popular than ever. There had been a falling-off in the number of pupils during the last year or two, but he attributed that solely to the depression.