TALENTED PIANIST

Auckland Star, Volume LXXVI, Issue 185, 7 August 1945, Page 6

TALENTED PIANIST

Scholarship Awarded To Young New Zealander TUITION IN AMERICA Rec. 10. MELBOURNE, this day. On the recommendation of William Kapell, the American pianist, Richard Farrell, the 18-year-old New Zealand pianist, has been awarded a scholarship with Kapell's teacher, Madame Samaroff Stokow ski in the United States. The latter is holding scholarships open both at the Juilliard School of Music in New York and at the Curtis Institute in Philadelphia. "Richard Farell is extraordinarily gifted," said Mr. Kapell. "It is most important that he should get to America immediately." Eugene Ormondy, conductor of the Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra, who is also greatly impressed by Farrell's talents, has endorsed Mr. Kapell's recommendation. Richard Farrell is the son of Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Farrell, formerly of Wellington and now of Sydney. He is a nephew of Mr. John Farrell, manager of His Majesty's Theatre, Auckland. Richard Farrell has been known for his brilliance as a pianist since he was ■ six years of age, at which time he also started composing. At an early age he composed a Requiem, and when ten years of age he was accompanist to Miss Gladys Moncrieff. Richard Tauber, the well-known tenor, heard him play, in Sydney and predicted a great" future for him. He is considered one of the three most promising musicians in Australia and New Zealand. He is not only brilliant as a pianist, but also as a scholar and in sport.