WHAT IS HE LIKE?

New Zealand Times, Volume XLIX, Issue 11293, 19 August 1922, Page 3

WHAT IS HE LIKE?

THE COMPETITIONS JUBCE WORDS OF ENCOURAGEMENT TO COMPETITORS. A BRILLIANT CAREER. Hundreds of entrants for the Wellington musical and elocutionary competitions, which are to commence on Tuesday, will be wondering what sort of a ferocious, testy old judge the society has selected to make tlie awards this year. The majority of competitions contestants, especially those who have not become accustomed by experience to being the cynosure of the eyes of an audience, live in fear and anxiety of the moment when they must face and be criticised by that exalted official—the judge. They paint him in their imagination as a harsh, scowling, and peppery individual, who lias his hand close by the bell, ready to ring them off the platform at any moment. But that is not the type of judge they will find in Mr A. W. Juncker, who has come across from Sydney to make thS decisions in the musical selections. “I make it a rule,” declared Mr Juncker to a “New Zealand Times’’ reporter yeeterday, “to give competitors a fair hearing, and to make allowances for nervousness and other sensations produced by strangeness of position and surroundings. I shaß always be ready to give them assistance, without, of course, telling them anything that would place others at a disadvantage. I can assure them I am not as ‘scotty’ as I look, and they need have no fear of me, despite my ferocious appearance. It is my idea in all examinations and competitions to encourage the candidates rather than be hard upon them, for, after all, the whole object of such tests is -to raise the standard of performance. If we acted differently the competitions would be killed, and art would never receive the advancement which is the sole function of the society. Everyone can be assured of a fair hearing. I never get my back up, and there need be no fear that I will ring competitors off the stage.’’ SINGER AND CONDUCTOR. Mr Juncker has probably had wider experience in music than any other competitions adjudicator that has appeared in New Zealand. Singer, conductor, and organist, he is a thorough all-round musician, who has his heart and whole interest in his work. His grandfather was a Frenchman, who served under the first Napoleon in the diplomatic corps, and went through several historic campaigns. His father was a Dane, having been bom in Denmark, and on arriving in England he became naturalised, and married into a Yorkshire family. Mr Juncker was educated in England, and from his boyhood showed musical inclinations, which he was allowed to follow. For yeans he devoted himself to grand opera, singing in several Continental cities, including some of the great Italian musical centres. At last he found the stage life too strenuous, and his meeting, at Alexandria, with Bottesini, the famous double-bass player, and Verdi, conductor, resulted in his turning his steps in another .direction, though not altogether separating himself from the theatrical profession. Bot tesini appointed him chorus-master and deputy-conductor, and later the great contra-bassist handed his baton and full office to his assistant. FROM THE EAST TO AUSTRALIA. Mr Juncker then made an extensive tour to the East, working back from India via Corsica, Alexandria, Salonika, -Athens, several of the Italian cities, and _ Malta. After spending three years in Italy he returned to London, and subsequently came out to Australia and New Zealand as conductor with the once-celebrated Dunning Opera Company. After serving for some time as conductor to the Montagu Turner and J. G. Williamson organisations, the old dislike of the nomadic life returned, and he decided to settle down in Australia. Latterly, Mr Juncker has devoted himself to instruction in singing. He i 3 also organist at St. Matthias’s Church, at Addington, Sydney, and for several years has acted as judge and examiner in many competitions and examinations in Sydney and other Australian cities. As a composer, he has earned a reputation through the presentation of three original operas, two of which he personally produced. The first, “Zelma,” was introduced with considerable success by the Dunning Opera Company, hut it was eclipsed by “The Romance of Corsica,” which achieved great popularity in Australia, being played in Sydney, Melbourne, Newcastle, and elsewhere. The third work wao “Dalsevik,’’ a Norwegian subject. Mr Juncker last visited New Zealand fourteen years ago, as conductor of a Gilbert and Sullivan Opera Company, and what struck him most forcibly when he arrived in Wellington on Wednesday last was the immense growth and development of the city. He hardly recognises in Wellington today the town he visited in 1908, and he likens the city and its people to Sydney on a smaller scale.