AMY SHERWIN'S PROTEGE

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXIII, Issue 7399, 29 March 1911, Page 5

AMY SHERWIN'S PROTEGE

EVOLVING AN ARTISTE FROM STREET SINGER. moil OtTE SPEOUIi COEKEarON»*NT. LONDON, February 17. Madame Amy Sherwin, of whose singing New Zealand ooncert-goors will have pleasant memories, has beoomo a fairy godmother to an infant prodigy, a little thirteen-year-old street singer who may yet become a prime donna. Mme. Sher win heard this child singing carols outside her house in Hampstead one cold night before Christmas. “I have christened her Stella Carol," said Mme. Sherwin, “a professional name I have chosen for her in memory of our first meeting. “It was really a romantic meeting, quite in the approved fairy-book style. 1 bad just returned from my salon to my home in Hampstead—very wearj after a hard day with my pupils. "Suddenly, outside my window, _ the voices of two little girls rose in a Christmas carol, I was annoyed at the disturbance, but gradually my an. noyance gave way to surprise and wonder.

“Both the little girls had very sweet voices, and when one of them sang top A and produced a note of perfect purity I went to the door to find out, what manner of children they might be, "I brought them into my drawingroom and learnt their story. They, were two little sisters from Holloway—two of a family of twelve—trying to get some money to buy their mother a surprise present for Christmas.

“They sang again—one of them 'holding a half-eaten apple—and I was so impressed by the natural beauty of tie voices that I determined to take . the elder one and train her for the singing profession. • “X sent them homo at once with the instructions not to sing in the open air any more, and next day saw their mother.

"Now Mass Stella Carol is living with me. I have practically adopted her, and have taken complete charge of her education. She v has her own bedroom and a maid to look alter her. She will also have a governess to teach her languages and to take charge of her during her afternoon walks.

"Already her upper notes are improving. She can sing too D and J 3 flat wit! perfect purity. She has a winsome and modest little face, and I have every hope that at her debut, within the next three months, she will create a furore.”