Mobil Song Quest

Press, 28 June 1989, Page 24

Mobil Song Quest

Proceeds from the 1989 Mobil Song Quest Gala Concert, to be held in Wellington on July 2 at the Michael Fowler Centre, will go to the Alex Lindsay Memorial Award. This award provides financial assistance to students and young performers on an orchestral instrument who want to follow a career in symphonic music. It provides important funding for talented young kiwis studying abroad and, perhaps even more importantly, maintains and renews the bonds to New Zealand that bring them back again. Two ex-recipients of the Alex Lindsay Award who

have returned their musical talents to New Zealand and the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra are the violinist and associate concertmaster, Donald Armstrong, and Alexa Still, principal flautist. Both feel strongly that the award helped them with their overseas study during a time of critical financial need but even more importantly felt that the award was a direct encouragement from the members of the N.Z.S.O. — a spur to greater achievements and to returning home to pursue a professional symphonic career rather than staying abroad. The Alex Lindsay

Memorial Award was set up in September, 1975, by the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra in memory of their much loved concertmaster who had died in December of the previous year. Alex Lindsay was one of New Zealand’s foremost violinists, founder of the Alex Lindsay String Orchestra (now the nucleus of the Wellington Regional Orchestra), and recipient of the M.B.E. for his enormous enthusiasm and the encouragement he imparted to fellow musicians. Two South Islanders are among the finalists: Ted Rhodes, from Christchurch, and Martin Snell, of Dunedin.