OBITUARY

Southland Times, Issue 22478, 14 November 1934, Page 7

OBITUARY

MR HENRI VERBRUGGHEN. DISTINGUISHED CONDUCTOR. (United Press Assn.—Telegraph Copyright.) New York, November 12. A message from Northfield (Minnesota) states that M Henri Verbrugghen, the noted musician, died to-day. He was 61 years of age. He formerly directed orchestras in the British Isles and Australia before taking charge of the Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra. Mr Henri Verbrugghen, violinist and conductors, was bom at Brussels, Belgium, in 1873. He studied music at the Brussels Conservatoire under Hubay and Ysaye. He first appeared as a violinist at the age of eight. He was taken to England by Ysaye at fifteen and played under Lamoureux, Sir George Henschel, Sir Frederic Cowen, Sir Henry Wood, and others. He was conductor of the Colwyn Bay Orchestra and Choir for three years, and succeeded Dr Coward as conductor of the Glasgow Choral Union. He was chief of staff of the Athenaeum School of Music, Glasgow, for ten years, also of the Royal College of Music, Dublin, for one year. Proceeding to Australia, he was the founder and director of the New South Wales State Conservatorium of Music, Sydney, and founder and conductor of the New South Wales State Orchestra and Select Choir for seven years. He directed concerts in Brussels, Berlin, Munich, Petrograd, Glasgow, Edinburgh and London. He conducted Bach, Beethoven and Brahms festivals in the Queen’s Hall, London, from 1914 to 1915, and was head of the Verbrugghen String Quartet which performed the complete cycle of Beethoven quartets in the cities of Britain, Australia and America. He was the guest conductor in the Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra for the season 1922-23, and was appointed permanent conductor in 1923.