World famous singer to judge the Quest

Press, 3 August 1981, Page 12

World famous singer to judge the Quest

This year's Mobil Song Quest in the Christchurch Town Hall on Wednesday will be judged by the great Australian singer. Dame Joan Hammond. Miss Hammond is one of those people who seem destined to . achieve distinction in some way. ' . ■■;

Though born- in Christchurch in 1912, her home was in Sydney, New South Wales. At school there, she excelled at games and music. She was the leading violinist in the school orchestra and won the singing prize in successive years.

At the Sydney Conservatory the violin was her main subject and singing was secondary but this order was reversed after a car accident damaged her left hand. Sport also continued to be important in her life. At 15 she had won the Junior Golf Championship of New South Wales and while she. was at the Conservatory she was chosen to represent Australia in the first overseas team sent abroad. On three occasions Joan won the State Championship for golf and in the same period was winning various awards, as a swimmer and an A grade player of tennis and squash. Her debut as a singer was at a Sydney orchestral concert in May. 1931. after which she was signed up for a series of broadcasts and tours in Australia and New Zealand. At the same time she was writing on sporting topics for several newspapers, covering important events in golf, swimming, hockey, tennis, squash and netball. Joan Hammond’s life in

the 1930 - thus involved, not only singing practice and engagements but also participation in, and reporting of, dozens of sporting events. In 1936 she began a three year course in singing, including opera and languages, in Europe — chiefly, in Aus-tria-and Italy.

She made her London debut in a 1938 performance of the Messiah, and her first important operatic appearance in Vienna followed in 1939.

During World War Two, Joan served as an ambulance driver in London's East End.

She also spent much time ingiving concerts in air raid shelters, the National Gallery. the Royal Exchange arid at service camps in various parts of Britain and Europe.

' After 1945, Miss Hammond established herself as one of the foremost singers in oratorio as well as opera. Her voice developed a compass of nearly two and a hall octaves to soar with ease to a top E-flat, and her repertoire grew to include about two dozen principal operatic roles.