MUSIC NOTES.

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Issue 1557, 26 February 1920, Page 32

MUSIC NOTES.

(By

“G” String.)

Major Higginson, who died a few weeks ago in Massachusetts, was well-known as the founder of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. A wealthy banker, he, with remarkable enterprise, established this orchestra as a hobby, just as other men keep racehorses or yachts. With the offer of big salaries, he attracted the best players in Europe and America, and the organisation became famous. For a long time the balance at the end of the year was on the wrong side of the ledger/ but Major Higginson cheerfully footed the bill until in due course the receipts overtook the expenditure. Some years ago he promised that he would leave £200,000 to ensure the permanence of the orchestra, but there is no such clause in his will, and there is speculation accordingly as to whether he did not before his death make some private provision which has not yet been publicly announced.

Mr. Warwick Braithwaite, of Dunedin, has won the Battison-Haynes prize, awarded annually by the London Royal Academy of Music for composition.