Prestigious, versatile contest a goal for aspiring singers

Press, 3 August 1981, Page 12

Prestigious, versatile contest a goal for aspiring singers

The final of the 1981 Mobil Song Quest will be held in the James Hay Theatre of the Christchurch Town Hall on Wednesday night. The last time a quest final was held in Christchurch was back in 1972.

Besides prizes for placings. .Mobil is this year offering a scholarship for the most promising finalist under the age of 26. This new prize consists of two years study at the Victoria College of the Arts in Melbourne, with Dame Joan Hammond as tutor.

Wherever the quest final is held, the local orchestra undertakes the accompaniment and local organising in return for the box office takings to pay its musicians. The Christchurch Symphony Orchestra is the organiser on this occasion and will be conducted on the evening by William Southgate. Wednesday's event is the

13th final since the competition was begun in 1956. and virtually all New Zealand's top singers have been entrants in it, according to the orchestra's manager. Mr Chris Brodderick. Past winners include Kiri Te Kanawa. Malvina Major, Christopher Doig and Malcolm Smith. Australia's Mobil Quest had already been running for eight years and had discovered many Australian singers. including Joan Sutherland, when the New Zealand competition began 25 years ago in Wellington.

To start with, the new quest was devoted expressly to ballad singers and the first competition attracted 1500 entries. From these, only one representative was selected from each radio district.

The selection process was changed for the third quest, held in 1959. It was decided

to select the 12 best singers in the country, irrespective of how many came from each district. Another innovation in that year was the introduction of prizes for the teachers of place-getters. Apart from these changes, the first prize was increased, with the extra sum being granted if the winner decided within 12 months to go overseas for further study.

In 1961, the opportunity was taken to introduce a Gilbert and Sullivan section as the contest coincided with the expiry of a strict copyright control on those songs. There were three singers in that section and nine in the main solo section.

The next quest, in 1963, was similarly split. Besides the solo section for nine finalists, a vocal groups section was included for the first time.

It was a “vintage year."

Two of Sister Mary Leo’s young pupils won first and second prizes — Malvina Major, a 20 year old soprano from Hamilton, was first and Kiri Te Kanawa, a 19 year oid from Auckland was second. Besides these now famous names, the Hamilton event included three other soloists who went on to successful overseas careers — Anson Austin, Rodney Macann and Grant Dickson. Kiri went on to win the next final in Dunedin in 1965 and is now in the select group of top world artists. In 1974 the quest final was presented both in the Auckland radio theatre and, nine days later, in the Wellington Town Hall with the N.Z.B.C. Symphony Orchestra. Firstly, eight soloists sang with piano accompaniment, then three were recalled to appear with the orchestra.

The winner’s prize was

$lOOO and a trip to Australia to attend the N.Z.B.C. Symphony Orchestra's concert in the Sydney Opera House with soloist. Kiri Te Kanawa. Another dimension was added to the final concert in 1977. in Auckland. Instead of listening to the singers at the local broadcasting station, as in all previous quest finals, the judge heard and saw them perform on stage. This change was thought desirable because part of the winner's prize was automatic entry in the Sydney Sun Aria, which is always judged on a singer's performance in a public hall.