Elderly Grandparent?

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30498, 21 July 1964, Page 1

Elderly Grandparent?

“I am told that many of the orchestras you have here were organised as a direct result of my orchestra’s visit in 1947,” Dr. Boyd Neel said in Christchurch yesterday. “It is a great compliment, but does make me feel like an elderly grandparent.”

Dr. Neel, who founded the Boyd Neel Orchestra in 1932, is Dean of the Royal Conservatory of Music of Toronto, a position he has held since 1953. He arrived in New Zealand two weeks ago at the invitation of the New Zealand Boadcasting Corporation, and is conducting orchestras throughout the country. He will leave for Sydney on July 29. Both the Alex Lindsay String Orchestra and the Auckland Symphony Orchestra, which he conducted in the North Island, were excellent, he said. He could not make comparisons between the musical scene in New Zealand on this visit and on his last, almost 20 years ago, Dr. Neel said,

as his previous visit had been very rushed and he had not had time to make many observations or to meet New Zealand musicians.

“Medicine is really my profession, and music my hobby,” he said. (He qualified as a doctor in 1930, and returned to medical work during the Second World War.) "But when I founded my orchestra I hadn’t time for medicine. No, I have no regrets—l love both professions.”

His position in Toronto has not meant that Dr. Neel has given up active participation in orchestras. “During the vacations,” he said, “I conduct as 1 feel like it.” He has toured Canada with the Toronto Chamber Orchestra, and also endeavours to conduct his own Boyd Neel Orchestra for some period during the year. “Last year,” he said, “we had a marvellous tour which included Europe and Berlin.” The Toronto Conservatory is very dear to Dr. Neel’s heart. “1 suppose you could say the position there is a fulfilment of my ambitions,” he said. “As a school it has everything that one could wish or hope for.” The conservatory, he said,

had three departments—the faculty of music, the school of music (which, with more than 7000 pupils is the largest in the Commonwealth), and the opera school. Interest in opera bad increased greatly in Canada over recent years, Dr. Neel said, and the opera school, with its wonderful opera house built two years ago, was a very vital department The school had its own company, which put on three big productions each year, and students were trained in theatre techniques, lighting, making sets, and similar things as well as learning music.

Dr. Neel has with him many photographs of the vast opera house, where the lighting system is worked by a computer and every room (it includes a library and a listening room, among others) is fitted with the most modern equipment. One of the fascinating aspects of the building is its electronic music laboratory. “Your New Zealand composer. Douglas Lilburn, recently came to study at the laboratory for three days, and was so enthralled he stayed for three months,” said Dr. Neel. Electronic music was misnamed, he said. “It should not be called music, because purposely it has no rhythm or melody. Those who listen expecting music are therefore disappointed. It is simply an exciting new experience in sound.” While he is in Christchurch Dr. Neel will lecture to the University School of Music, and will also conduct the John Ritchie Orchestra.