MUSICAL PRODIGIES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLVII, Issue 14345, 15 April 1910, Page 6

MUSICAL PRODIGIES.

A CHRISTCHURCH FAMILY.

[BY TELEGRAPH.—OWN" CORRESPONDENT, J

Wellington, Thursday. ~ Mil. Hugo Gorlitz, who has just returned from Christchurch, states that he discovered a family of three young people, the Ellwoods, of Armagh-street, Christchurch, who are musical prodigies of brilliant promise. "They are marvellous," said Mr. Gorlitz to a reporter. " The eldest boy, Henry, is 17 years of age, and plays delightfully on a bad violin. He is a fine executant, and has the temperament that makes great violinists. He has only had half a-quarter's tuition from Zimmerman. Ho played to me, and played so well that if he ad a good violin he would challenge comparison with Kubelik. The girl, Pauline, aged 15, is a pianist. She has had one quarter's tuition from Bunz. She plays beautifully, and I was told that she promised to develop a beautiful voice. When the boy George, just 11 years old, played, he made a creepy feeling run down my back, and I could not keep the tears out of my eyes. He has had no tuition, save what his father has given him, and I don't know if that was much. These children are born -musicians Their mother keeps a second-hand shop, and the father is a tailor. The father realises the talent his children possess, and he has been scraping every penny together to give them tuition, and to send them Homo. Wo will do it quicker now. 1 am going to tour them through New Zealand to raise funds to send them Home." Mr. Gorlitz added that his discoveries did not end with the Ellwoods." "I found," he said, "a. beautiful singer, with a voice like that which Madame Calve had 20 years ago, a soprano with a contralto quality, with a lino natural production. She takes the high C like a bird. She is a hospital nurse, Miss Winnie Nixon, daughter of a New Plymouth clergyman."