THE SHEFFIELD CHOIR.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXIX, Issue 102, 20 June 1911, Page 7

THE SHEFFIELD CHOIR.

HOW THE SINGERS WERE CHOSEN. Besides being composed of 200 of the best amateur vocalists of Great Britain, tbo Sbo/licld Choir, which is to visit Palmerston North on .Time 30th, will comprise twelve leading soloists, who rank high in English musical life, and who include such artists as Lady Norah Noel, daughter of the Earl ol Gainsborough. Lady Noel, hy the way, will ho accompanied on the tour hy her brother, Lord Campden. Hoi the selection of the choir, Dr. Henry Coward, the conductor, drew i!]) a unitpio series of tests of the vocal abilities of the applicants, and demanded that So per cent, of the possible 100 marks ho attained hy each. There were SGO applicants for admission to the choir to take part in the Empire tour, and of those Dr. Coward selected 200, which ho dec’aros to lie the finest 200 selected voices which ho lias over controlled throughout the whole of his professlo al career. • This is remarkable testimony to the efficiency of the choir, for Dr. Coward is a man of international reputation, who has achieved, some of the greatest successes in choral productions in mod(rn times. The success which attended him when he -tool; the hold, step oi taking the Sheffield Choir into the very heart of musical Germany, is a matter of musical history ,and the treat in store can he appreciated hv the fact that in Germany the, .greatest living conductors (Ritciiter, Nikish, and Woingartnor) declared the Sheffield Choir to ho the finest in the. world.