Parents unaware of singer’s success

Press, 24 July 1987, Page 5

Parents unaware of singer’s success

Paul Whelan, of Christchurch, has won Australia’s richest singing prize but his parents do not know yet. They are on a whistle-stop tour of eastern Europe and the singer, aged 20, is not expecting a call until Sunday, when he will be back in Wellington. He is a music student at the Wellington Polytechnic and will graduate in November.

Paul Whelan’s win in the Australian Singing Competitions in Sydney on Wednesday evening earned him sAustls,ooo, a watch, shoes, recording time with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, and a guest apperance at the Sydney “Sun” Aria Competition in September. He said last evening that winning the Marianne Mathy Scholarship (worth $17,300) did not guarantee him a place for study at a music college, but it meant that if he won a place he could afford to go. The bass singer is a member of the National Youth Choir and one of 40 choir members who will go to Britain and Europe next year on a tour. He plans to stay in Britain and seek a place at either the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester or the Guildhall in London.

His win — the latest of an impressive list of singing credits — has determined him on singing career, probably in opera.

“That is a long way off yet. My voice needs to get stronger, but definitely I want a career in singing,” he said. Paul Whelan won entry to the Sydney competition by taking second place, behind Teddy Rhodes, of Christchurch, in last year’s Dame Sister Mary Leo Scholarship competition. Earlier this year he won the “Evening Post” Aria Competition in Wellington for his performance of the bassbaritone aria for John Claggart in Benjamin Britten’s opera, “Billy Budd,” and a Mozart aria. The Britten was the work he sang in Sydney.

He is also a semi-finalist in the Mobil Song Contest.

Before moving to Wellington, the only formal singing lessons he had were at Burnside High School. His interest in music, however, is hardly surprising. His father, Don Whelan, is musical director at the Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament.

“He will be rapt when I tell him,” his son said.

As well as singing, Paul Whelan also plays the viola. He beat four other finalists for the Mathy Scholarship in Wednesday’s final. Eight singers were involved in the competitions at the New South Wales Conservatorium of Music. Three were contesting the Armstrong-Martin Scholarship, worth sAustBooo.