Dame Joan comes ‘home’

Press, 5 August 1981, Page 1

Dame Joan comes ‘home’

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MARTINE CUSACK

In 1912 a young immigrant. on her way from England to Australia, was forced to stop over in Christchurch because her third child had decided to make an untimely arrival. That is why one oi the world's most famous Australians is actually a New Zealander. Dame Joan Hammond is back in Christchurch, a fewyears older and easily recognisable as one of the world's most loved, opera singers. "We lived here only for six months before joining my father in Australia." Dame Joan said. It was as an Australian that Dame Joan made her name — first as an amateur golfer. She said she was "really

very good" and at one stage had the lowest handicap for any woman golfer in Australia. "Now. the only golf I play involves hitting a ball into a net. I just don't get the time." Her other early “career" was playing the violin. "Again I was very good, but an arm injury put an end to that." she said. Gradually singing took up more of Dame Joan's time. “A fund to send me to Vienna was started in 1936 by someone who heard me singing and said. 'That voice must go overseas'." But her stay in Vienna was brief. "The Nazis arrived in Vienna in 1938 and in 1939. while I was performing in England, but still under con-

tract in Vienna. World War II broke out." "I believe it was fate, but at the time I was not sure what to do. So I just wired back to Vienna and told them I had a. cold, but I never went back until after the war." Dame Joan said. The war kept her busy, but not as a singer. "Everything stopped in the way of music at the beginning of the war. I tried to get into the Navy, but they would not accept me and so 1 became an ambulance driver in London's East End." "Later on I was singing again. I remember performing in London and Manchester as the bombs rained down around me. But the audience- never moved. They always stayed until the final act had ended." __

Dame Joan continued to sing until 1964 when she suffered a coronary that abruptly ended her career. "After the coronary I wanted to give my piano and all my music away. I was not interested any more." But gradually she was lured into teaching. "I said I would teach for only one day a week, but quickly it was four and now it is five days." Dame Joan, who is here to judge the Mobil Song Quest, spends most of her time teaching teachers, at the Victorian College of the Arts. Melbourne. She has won honours as a teacher as well as a performer. "Just list the honours, it makes for a shorter story." is Dame Joan's; attitude.