Singer back after 53 years

Press, 3 January 1979, Page 2

Singer back after 53 years

A woman who as a girl, sang in St Mary’s church [ choir at Geraldine is back in; the town after an absence of: 53 years. During that .time I she pursued a career which) took her to the top in Brit- : ain as a professional soloist ’

.who performed in some of [Englands’ great cathedrals. She is Mrs Margaret Clark, who accompanied by I her husband, Captain H. P. iC. Clark, has spent Christ:mas and the New Year with j her nephew, Mr Anthony: j Barker, of Upton Cellars, 'Geraldine. j She is the younger daugh-, ter of the late Captain A, W. McArthur, a former officer: in the Royal Indian Marine, who came to Geraldine in 1919.

Mrs Clark left Geraldine in 1925 to train at the Royal College of Music in London, after voice training in Christchurch with Antonio Natazillo. She won an exhibition, medals, and then a sixyear scholarship at the Royal College, and later became a well-known contralto singing in oratorios and, music festivals throughout Britain. She was the soloist with the Leeds choir, conducted by Sir Malcolm Sargent, at the Albert Hall in 1935. and she later sang solo roles at the Queen’s Hall with the

Royal Philharmonic Society:} conducted by Sir Thomas,)! Beecham. She also did much)} broadcast work for the: 8.8. C. with Sir Adrian Bouit. ; J Back in Geraldine, her)] father bought a short-wave;] [radio to listen to his daugn-jl iter sing on 8.8. C. overseas • broadcasts. ’ 1 However, at the height of her career, she married Cap-;I ■■tain Clark, to whom she had)] been engaged for four years, I and accompanied him with i

his regiment to India for a jstay of five years, and a half. The regiment returned to' ! England during World War 111, and Mrs Clark resumed] her singing career. One of iher favourite memories is i singing with three choirs ad Hereford Cathedral. . She also created the con- ' tralto solos in Michael Tipipet’s “Child of Our Time,” i Martin Shaw’s “The Redeemer,” and the alto solos in Monteverdi’s “Vespers” for broadcasting. Her favourite works are Johannes Brahms’s “Leider” and all of Johann Sebastian Bach’s contatas and oratorios. Back trouble and spinal surgery eventually caused Mrs Clark to retire. To ' honour a commitment she | sang in the parish church at ! Stratford-on-Avon wearing a I plaster cast, after being taken to the church b. ambulance. Mrs Clark’s only sister, the late Constance McArthur, married Mr Michael Barker, of Waihi Gorge Station, Woodbury.