WANGANUI MALE CHOIR JUBILEE YEAR

Wanganui Chronicle, 29 January 1948, Page 4

WANGANUI MALE CHOIR JUBILEE YEAR

•NEED OF CONCERT HALL IS VERY PRESSING

The 49th. annual report was presented at the Wanganui Male Choir’s informal practice and social gathering, held in the Savage Club Hall, on Tuesday evening. With the annual meeting being held next week the choir moves into its fiftieth year, having continued to practice and present pieces without a break between or during the wars. “As subscribers’ concerts come and go the need for a concert chamber in the City becomes more apparent and it is hoped that the time is not far distant when the choir will be able to present its concerts in surroundings adequate to accommodate the everincreasing number of enthusiastic audiences,” states the president’s report. At the first concert of the year, when assisting artists, Miss Kathryn Williams (soprano from Palmerston North) and Messrs. R. W. C. Thomas and S. Cox, cornetists, gave an item, the Old Museour Hall was packed to capacity. In the Repertory. Theatre on August 2, the Vocal Art Society of Palmerston North presented Cole-ridge-Taylor’s “A Tale of Old Japan’’ to an appreciative audience, and in July, five of the outstanding competitors in the Bible Classes contest gave creditable performances which promised a good future for musical talent in Wanganui. The final concert for the year was the' presentation of Purcell's “Dido and Aeneas” in the Opera House on December 2, in conjunction with the Ladies’ Choir. Such presentations were new to Wanganui, and the audience was not a full one, though it was thought that the poliomyelitis outbreak had kept a large number of people away. The audience which did go was enthusiastic after the performance. Life membership badges, in the shape of gold lyres, have been presented to Messrs. V. L. Cooke. J. Healey and J. McDougall. “It is with great regret, the renort states, “that the choir records the nassing of three former members— Messrs. D. Strachan, W. G. Herd, and J. McFarlane. These have served the committee over a long period as com-mittee-men and past presidents.” After thanking especially Miss P. Scott, the accompanist, and Mr. F. Wentworth Slater, the conductor, the president’s report reorded the choir’s appeciation of all help recived during tne year and the hope that the jubilee year would be a successful one. The Male Choir was founded in 1898.