8
MUSICAL COURIER
CLEVELAND PLAYS HOST TO NATIONAL
CONFERENCE OF MUSIC SUPERVISORS
Over Fifteen Hundred Members Attend and Thoroughly Enjoy the Five Day Programs—Varied Musical Programs Arranged for Guests’ Enjoyment—Cleveland and Suburbs Visited—Cleveland Orchestra, with Sokoloff Conducting, an Added Feature—Many Social Affairs Given—Conference Chorus Presents Excellent Program—Leonard Liebling Makes Address at Final Banquet
April 19, 1923
To Welcome You, by Thomas Goring, was especially creditable. The assisting artist was Conrad Forsberg, pianist, who offered two groups of selections from Saint-Saëns, Henselt, Debussy, Leschetizky, and others. Altogether the evening was a very enjoyable one and the audience was enthusiastic.
Paderewski’s Final New York Program
Paderewski will play a program devoted entirely to Chopin at his third and final recital this season in Carnegie Hall, Sunday afternoon, April 22, the program consisting of the following compositions:	fantasia op. 49; four preludes,
Nos. IS, 16, 21, and 24; two nocturnes, op. 15; ballade A flat; scherzo B flat minor; barcarolle no. 6; four etudes, No. 6 op. 25, No. 10, op. 10, and Nos. 7 and 11, op. 25, sonata op. 35; mazurka, op. 17, No. 4; a Valse and polonaise op. 53.
Haywood Attends National Conference
Frederick H. Haywood attended the Music Supervisors’ National Conference at Cleveland, Ohio, April 7-14, for the purpose of furthering the interest of voice culture classes in high schools. Mr. Haywood was in Worcester and Boston, Mass., on April 23, to teach in the studios of Frederic W. Bailey and Wilhelmina Baldwin.
Frederick Southwick Gives Tea
Frederick Southwick gave a tea at his studio in Carnegie Hall, New York, in honor of Mary Virginia Goble, of Altoona, Pa., on March 16, on which occasion Mr. Southwick presented two of his pupils, Ella Moore, who possesses a lovely soprano, and a young contralto, Aimée Alson, who showed a promising quality of voice.
Salvi’s Tour Ending
Alberto Salvi has ten more concerts to fill this month and early May in the United States and Cuba to complete his enormous tour of one hundred appearances during the present season. Salvi will then go to Camden to make some new Victor recordings when he will retire to Chicago for the summer.
Schumann Heink to Sing in Sharon, Pa.
In connection with her Pittsburgh appearance, under the local direction of May Beegle on April 30, Ernestine Schumann Heink is booked to sing in Sharon, Pa., on Thursday evening, April 26. This month she will also appear in the States of Texas, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska and Illinois.
Louis Graveure Off for Europe
Louis Graveure is en route for Europe, where he will give recitals in Germany, Holland, Belgium and the Scandinavian countries. He returns to America in June, and will leave for the Pacific Coast where he will conduct a master class during the summer.
Cyrena Van Gordon’s Spring Engagements
Some of the spring engagements booked for Cyrena Van Gordon are as follows: Winnetka (111.), April 14; Chicago, April 15 and 18; Huntington (W. Va.), April 24; Charleston (W. Va.), April 25; Sturgis (Mich.), May 2, and Saginaw (Mich.), May 8.
Anna Case’s Busy Week
Anna Case, the popular American soprano, will give concerts this week in Eastland, Marshall and Greenville, Texas. She will also appear at the Amarillo (Texas) and Pittsburg (Kansas) festivals and give a recital in Wilson, N. C.
Cortot to Sail Soon
Alfred Cortot, on his way East from his extended tour of the West, will play one engagement before sailing for Europe. This appearance will he in Montreal on April 23, with Jacques Thibaud.
Duncan Dancers Return to Paris
The Duncan Dancers, Anna, Lisa and Margot, have returned to Paris after a successful tour of Algiers, their first appearance in Africa.
Ethel Newcomb to Teach Until June 15
Ethel Newcomb, pianist, will teach in New York until the middle of June, when she will go to Whitney Point for the balance of the summer.
April of 1907, where the National Conference was formed. Besides these fifteen charter members there were also those who attended the first formal meeting at Indianapolis, Ind., in April, 1908, and some more were present as “Pioneers,” having seen thirty years of active service in the profession. This breakfast was one of the most inspiring and delightful occasions of the entire conference. Mrs. Clark acted as hostess and the company which she represents gave the breakfast. It was voted to make it an annual event and the same officers will continue next year.
Wednesday morning, in the same place, the Ohio breakfast, the largest State function, was held.
On Wednesday evening, the Crane dinner, given by former pupils in honor of their beloved teacher, Julia Crane, of the Potsdam (N. Y.) Training School, was a charming occasion. Twenty-three of the alumnae were present. Several other States had gatherings that were announced informally.
On Friday morning came the last of these functions, the breakfast meeting of the executive board. Here President Karl W. Gehrkens acted as host.
Concert by Conference Chorus.
The annual concert by the Conference Chorus (W. Otto Miessner, conductor; Anton H. Embs, assistant conductor; Milton Rusch, accompanist, and the Conference Orchestra, Osborn McConathy, conductor, and Russell V. Morgan, assistant conductor, assisted by George Oscar Bowen, director of community singing) was held in Masonic Hall, Wednesday evening. The chorus and orchestra met for the first time on Monday and rehearsed four times. To give the program presented would have been astonishing, but to give it in such an artistic manner, was little short of remarkable.^ One hesitates to place greater emphasis on the skill of directors or of performers—perhaps only an equitable distribution of praise would be just. It was a wonderful concert. The minuet for strings by Bolzoni was played from manuscript. Given entirely with muted strings, in the classic style, which necessitated a repetition, it was a perfect gem of orchestration.
Two other new compositions—Summer Night, by Mr. Miessner, and Mexican Serenade, by George W. Chadwick —were very successful. The former is an exquisite chorus and the latter a very clever humorous song. Among the other American composers whose choruses were heard may be mentioned J. Lamont Galbraith, David Stanley Smith, Henry K. Hadley, Charles Wakefield Cadman, Edgar Stillman Kelley, Daniel Protheroe, and Harvey Worthington Loomis.
Formal Banquet and Entertainment.
On Thursday evening came the formal banquet followed by an equally formal entertainment, closing in the wee small hours with a ball. Leonard Liebling, editor in chief of the Musical Courier, gave a half hour address in which he mingled in even proportion wit and wisdom, concerning music and things musical. Adella Prentiss Hughes, James H. Rogers and Wilson G. Smith spoke briefly. Musical numbers were given by Virginia Gehrkens, violinist; Jessie Miller, pianist; Lila Robeson, contralto; Mrs. H. L. Good-bread, accompanist; Beryl Rubinstein, pianist; Andre de Ribaupierre, violinist, and the Singers’ Club of Cleveland, with Edwin Arthur Kraft, conductor, and Edwin L. Bottle and J. Van Dyke Miller as accompanists. These numbers were received with enthusiasm. The degree of rapport between performers and audiences throughout the conference was somthing to treasure as a beautiful memory.
So much for the entertaining side of the conference. Next week the laboratory and discussion side will be dealt with.
M. B. P.
Suzanne Zimmerman Sings at Waldorf-Astoria
On Friday evening, April 13, Suzanne Zimmerman, soprano, appeared in an interesting recital before a large audience, accompanied by Bruno Huhn at the piano. Her program was one of sufficient variety and interest to please the most exacting taste, consisting of numbers in French and English by Debussy, Godard, MacDowell, Bizet and Roger Quilter. The second group in English, including Cyril Scott’s Bluebirds’ Song, Victor Harris’ Silver, and
The sixteenth annual meeting of the Music Supervisors’ National Conference has become a memory, having been held in Hotel Staffer, Cleveland, from April 9 to 13, 1923. The members began to arrive Friday, April 6, and, when the registration was counted, over fifteen hundred members had registered. The whole fifteen hundred must have been active members, for every session was full and many crowded. At that, only one sectional meeting was placed at a disadvantage. The High School Chorus and Glee Club section was very naturally the most largely attended of any sectional meeting and fully as many as heard this splendid program were unable to gain admission. This lack of accommodation was due to the fact that members, on registering, did not indicate as requested on cards furnished for the purpose the departmental meetings each one desired to attend.
Monday morning was devoted to visiting Cleveland city and suburban schools. At five elementary schools supervisors gave model lessons from kindergarten to the eighth grade inclusive. Five junior high schools were thrown open to visitors and five senior high schools. Three of the latter were six year high schools and here every phase of the work, both vocal and instrumental was shown.
At the various meetings and in the hotel lobby during the . dinner hour, five high school bands and the All-High School orchestra played. A chorus of a thousand boys of unchanged voices, under the direction of J. Powell Jones, and a glee club of mixed voices, sang Wednesday afternoon in Masonic Hall.
Visiting organizations added to the very musical week. The Oberlin Glee Club, the Boys’ Glee Club of Davenport (Iowa) High School, the Boys’ Glee Club of Akron (Ohio) Central High School, and the Grand Rapids Central High School band and orchestra, all gave carefully prepared and delightful programs.
On Tuesday evening at Masonic Hall the Cleveland Orchestra gave a concert. It was followed by a reception in the ballroom, given by the leading musical organizations of the city who were joined in hospitality by the Principals’ Club, Western Reserve University, the Art Museum, and the City Federation of Women’s Clubs.
High lights of the conference were so many that it is somewhat bewildering to select any as more notable than others. At the opening reception, Monday evening, Superintendent R. G. Jones of the Cleveland schools, in his address of welcome, raised the mooted question of the “singableness, of the Star Spangled Banner.” This provoked the usual discussion in the lobbies and the public press. Newton D. Baker, ex-Secretary of War and now president of the Cleveland Chamber of Commerce, followed Mr. Jones, and in his usual polished style advocated beauty as a daily need.
Nikolai Sokoloff, conductor of the Cleveland Orchestra, gave a talk on the relation of the orchestra to the children of the city which aroused the greatest interest among the visiting supervisors. After the concert ,by the orchestra on Tuesday evening and the playing of the All-High School Orchestra Wednesday afternoon, one frequently heard it remarked that the Cleveland children ought to have good orchestras when so much is being done for them by the symphony players. In addition to the regular concerts, the children’s concerts and the popular Sunday concerts, every Saturday morning over seven hundred children are taught by orchestra men in two high schools, one on the east and the other on the west side of town.
Social Features.
The social features of the conference were many, and were characterized by great good fellowship. A buffet supper was held on Monday evening at six-thirty and on Tuesday evening, at the same time, the annual informal banquet when the groups from each State or college or city were seated at separate tables and each group sang some original song or at least original words to an old song.
Then there were the breakfasts, the chief of these being the first annual breakfast of the Founders’ Association of the Music Supervisors’ National Conference, held in the Rose Room of the Hotel Staffer, Tuesday morning, April 10. The officers are Frances Elliott Clark, president; P. C. Hayden, vice-president; Elizabeth Carmichael, secretary. There were fifteen present who were at Keokuk, Iowa, in
iSTURANI
FORMERLY WITH CHICAGO OPERA
VOCAL TEACHER AND COACH
SUMMER SESSION, June 15—Aug. 15
For a limited number of Teachers and Coaches, a course of instruction in coaching of operatic roles.
A partial list of artists who have coached with Mr. Sturani: Rosa Raisa, Van Gordon, Peralta, Fitziu, Jardon Namara Sylva, Rappold, Stracciari, McCormack, Lindau, Rimini, D’Alvarez, Sundelius, Potter, Tokatyan, etc.	’ amara׳
Phone: Schuyler 7530
Studio: 43 West 86th St., New York