Visiting Conductor To Direct “Hiawatha”

Press, Volume C, Issue 29616, 12 September 1961, Page 8

Visiting Conductor To Direct “Hiawatha”

The performance of excerpts from “The Song of Hiawatha” under the direction of Dr. Denis Wright at the Civic Theatre next Monday will be an unusual event in several ways. It will be the first performance of Cole-ridge-Taylor’s setting of Longfellow’s poem in Christchurch for many years and it will be the first occasion that country choirs have held a festival in the city. Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, who was born in Britain in 1875 of an English mother and an African , negro father —a physician from Sierra Leone—was only 23 when he gained great fame with his strikingly original setting of “Hiawatha’s Wedding feast.” The second part of the trilogy. “The Death of Minnehaha” followed in 1899 and repeated the success of the first part. These are the parts which will be performed in Monday’s concert. The third part, “Hiawatha’s Departure" (published in 1900) was less successful. Coleridge-Taylor was a composer possessed of original creative gifts but his untimely death in 1912 cut short a career which aroused worldwide interest. “Hiawatha’s Wedding Feast.” in which the important tenor solo will be sung by Edmund Qohan, tells of the dancing, singing and storytelling provided as entertainment at thd wedding. The second part relates the events of a hard winter when the Indian colony starved, and is notable for the choral funeral procession. The soloists in this part are Marie Sutherland (soprano) and Winston Sharp (baritone). The performance will be accom-

panied by the John Ritchie String Orchestra and Claire Peach (piano). The 120 choristers comprise, the Lincoln Choral Group, the South Brighton Choral Society, and members of choirs from Cheviot, Domett. Scargill, Motunau, Waikari, Hawarden, Omihi, Waipara, Amberley, Waiau, Rotherham. Culverden and Balmoral Forest. Works to be performed in the second half of Ute concert are Benjamin Britten’s “Simple Symphony,” in which John Ritchie will conduct the orchestra, and a short cantata. "The Sailor and His Lass” by the English composer, Roger Quilter. In this the soloists will be Marie Sutherland, who will leave soon for Australia, and Winston Sharp. Dr. Wright, who is especially well known for his work with brass bands in England, conducted “Hiawatha’s Wedding Feast” in a choral festival at Rangiora on a previous visit to New Zealand in 1959, when Edmund Bohan was also the tenor soloist. The festival is sponsored by the Adult Education Department of the University of Canterbury, whose ' music tutor, Mr L. G. Peach, planned the event. The festival will be repeated at Lincoln on September 28 and at Rangiora on October 16. Since 1954, more than 30 rural music festivals have been held in Canterbury and Westland and the country choirs have grown in strength and ability. A feature of the choir’s growth has been an increase in the number of men taking part—at first there were none. More young choristers are participating too.