VIOLINIST’S PROTEST

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLV, Issue 21183, 2 November 1938, Page 11

VIOLINIST’S PROTEST

FAMOUS MENUHIN MUST JOIN UNION United Press Association—By Electric Telegraph —Copvrlgh t (Received November 2, 11.40 pan.) NEW YORK, November 1. The governors of the Musicians Union have ruled that Menuhin (the noted violinist) must become a. member before playing the “Symphony." They issued a statement containing a list of many prominent members. "The artists,” said the statement, “do not feel membership degrades their art and limits freedom of expression. We are afraid Menuhin is influenced by bad advice. We cannot make any exception, because we must protect his less fortunate fellow artists, who need the organisation.” It is rumoured that Menuhin may reconsider his decision. Declaring that the rights of the individual in a democratic country were involved, Yehudi Menuhin, the young violin genius, last Saturday refused to join the American Guild of Musical Artists in order to play a symphony with the Los Angeles philharmonic orchestra. “I consider this sort of thing degrading," he added. “It is as if you demand husbands and wives to have union cards and regulations governing their hours together, or as if Christ and His apostles submitted to union regulations.”