MISS MARION STEIN

Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 79, Issue 7100, 29 August 1949, Page 5

MISS MARION STEIN

EARL OF HAREWOOD’S FIANCEE BIOGRAPHICAL DETAILS Exceptional interest is being displayed in London at the engagement and forthcoming marriage of Miss Marion Stein and the Earl of Harewood, not only because the Earl is eleventh in succession to the throne, but because Miss Stein is a charming person.

Twenty-two years of age, raven haired, slim, and attractive, Miss Stein has hitherto been best known in musical circles. She has led such a quiet life that until her engagement the alert photographic agencies had not a single picture of her. She was born in Vienna in 1926 and her middle-aged Austrian father and her German mother were so thrilled at the event that she was named Donata, which means unexpected gift. Alarmed at the oncoming Nazi tide in the years before the war Mr Stein, who is a Jewish Protestant and an authority on modern music, decided to emigrate to England. He arrived in London in 1938 and Donata was sent to the Kensington High School where, in addition to her normal studies, she took an interest in netball, tennis, and swimming. Here it was that she decided to change her name to the more English Marion.

When she left school she was entered at the Royal College of Music. She studied hard, often for seven hours a day, and is now considered a pianist approaching the first-class. She is also an excellent flautist.

Although Miss Stein-has not yet given a solo concert in London she has played professionally at several lunchtime concerts, and until recently, she was touring with the English Opera Group, organised by the foremost composer, Benjamin Britten, and whose president is the Earl of Harewood himself. It was Benjamin Britten who introduced the couple last year at the Aldeburg Musical Festival and since then he has taken a great interest in the romance. At present he is composing a special anthem to be played at the wedding in the fashionable St. Mark’s Church on September 29. Miss Stein, modest and unassuming, wears very simple clothes. Black is her favourite, evening colour. She generally wears her hair either drawn back to show her ears or loose at shoulder length. She prefers antique and quaint jewellery to precious stones. Her engagement ring, an emerald between two diamonds, is a copy of the Princess Royal’s. She did not like the original patinum setting and had it changed to gold. Her musical interests are shared by her fiance who is musical and dramatic critic for a London newspaper. Before their engagement they were often seen together at Wagner recitals and concerts of serious music. The future chatelaine of Harewood will live in Harewood House which stands amid 2000 acres of beautiful parkland midway between Leeds and Harrogate. It was built in 1760 at the then enormous cost of £lOO,OOO. It. is notable for the lovely gardens, exquisite John Adam and Chippendale furniture, paintings by Reynolds, Hoppner, and Lawrence and for its fine ceilings by Zucchi, Rose, and Rebecci.