Minstrels tour small towns

Press, Volume CXV, Issue 33967, 7 October 1975, Page 19

Minstrels tour small towns

Two twentieth-century minstrels are in Canterbury this week on a tour of provincial centres.

They will give recitals in Temuka on Thursday, Ashburton on Saturday, and Akaroa on Sunday. Milton Parker and Robert Oliver are the minstrels, Mr Parker playing the guitar and lute, and Mr Oliver singing. The music will include early lute songs and lute solos, a guitar work by Bach, English folk-songs set by Benjamin Britten, a guitar solo by Carey Blyton, “In Memoriam Django Reinhardt,” and Denis Glover’s "Sings Harry” poems, set to music by Douglas Lilburn.

Milton Parker started as a pop guitarist, and was a member of Farmyard. He toured Australia with this group in 1969, and while there was introduced to classical guitar music. He severed his connections with pop music, obtained a B.Mus. degree at Victoria University, and now teaches and performs classical guitar. Robert Oliver is perhaps New Zealand’s leading singer of early music, bringing a historian’s knowledge to the lyrics he sings. A history graduate from Victoria University, he studied singing in London, making frequent appearances with the 8.8. C. and Monteverdi Choirs. Since his return to New Zealand several years ago he has become well known throughout the country having appeared with his wife, Andrea, and most recently in the New Zealand Music Consort—the

early music group which toured successfully in: August.