MISS LAURA WALKER.

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Issue 1551, 15 January 1920, Page 34

MISS LAURA WALKER.

YOUNG AUCKLANDER’S PROGRESS.

Miss Laura Walker, the promising young Auckland singer, .returned from Melbourne just before New Year, and is spending a short holiday with her people before returning to continue her musical studies at the Conservatorium in Melbourne, where she was a protegee of Dame Melba. Miss Walker went to Australia intending to spend two years in musical education, but on the advice of Melba it w*as increased to three years’ tuition’, and having gained her third year diploma, the scholarship has been extended another year. Miss Walker has made fine use of her opportunities, three years’ close study making an appreciable improvement in the quality and range of her voice, which is a dramatic soprano. She has many interesting reminiscences of the great diva’s interest in the students, and speaks glowingly of her boundless enthusiasm and realistic methods of demonstration. An hour and a-quarter’s motor run from Coombe Cottage, and Dame Melba would be at the Conservatorium soon after 9 in the morning, giving lessons without a stop till 1 o’clock. “All the girls ■ simply worship her,” said Miss Walker, “and I personally owe her a lasting debt of gratitude, for many a private lesson she gave me at her own home. And she has expressed herself thoroughly pleased with my progress,” modestly added her Auckland pupil. . Miss Campbell; principal vocal teacher at the Conservatorium, who was left in charge of Miss Walker’s training during the absence of Melba in Europe, has a very high opinion of the young singer’s attainments. Many of -her friends having expressed a desire to see the fulfilment of their prophecy regarding . Miss Walker, a recital has been arranged for Saturday evening, when she will be heard in a comprehensive programme of operatic arias and modern ballads at the Town Hall concert chamber. As Miss Walker is returning to Melbourne in February this will be the only opportunity of hearing her in special numbers. Mr. Walter Impett, her former teacher in Auckland, is arranging the concert.

Miss Eve Lynn, the principal girl of the J. C. Williamson pantomime “The Sleeping Beauty,” made a flight over Melbourne in an aeroplane recently. She has made several flights over New York. On one occasion she accompanied a military aviator who circled the Woolworth Building three times, while tens of thousands of people in the streets below watched the feat in breathless admiration.