May 24, 1923 SHAVITCH CONSERVATORY, MONTEVIDEO orchestra, and among the things she played were the Tschai-kowsky concerto, the Chopin concerto in F minor, the Grieg concerto, the Liszt A major concerto and the Schumann concerto. There were also other noted soloists with the orchestra, among them Bachaus on two occasions, playing the Beethoven E flat and Grieg concertos. Then, too, there were Francillo Kauffmann, formerly of the Vienna and Berlin operas, and Florencio Mora, noted Chilian violinist. During the concerts the standard repertory was given, and Mr. Shavitch also embraced the opportunity to give the initial hearing of a symphonic poem by a local composer named Eduardo Fabini. The poem is called Campo (The Plains) and is a description of rural life based upon Uruguayan folk songs. Among the artists whom Mr. Shavitch met during his stay in South America were Weingartner, who came over with the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, and Risler, the French pianist, who played, as he has often done in Paris, the thirty-two Beethoven sonatas in successive recitals. Godowsky was entertained by Mr. and Mrs. Shavitch, both of them being former pupils of his, and the three of them played together the contrapuntal variations for three pianos on Weber’s Invitation to the Waltz, Tina Lerner playing the first piano. The success was tremendous. While in Monevideo Mr. Shavitch built a splendid conservatory of music, a photograph of which is here shown. At his departure he turned over the management to Guilmo Kolisher, formerly of Berlin, a prominent pianist. S. J. New York and will leave for a Western concert tour in October. Among the pupils accompanying her to Europe were Alice Singer of Muneie, Ind., and Mary McGraw, of Grand Rapids, Mich. William Ryder Gives Recital William Ryder, baritone, was heard in recital at the National Theater, Friday afternoon, May 11, giving a varied program of interesting numbers. Considering the lateness of the season, the size of the audience was very large. The first group consisted of songs in English and Italian by Handel, Scarlatti and Peri, and revealed his finish of style, a command of smooth, legato singing and good phrasing. In a group of French songs by John A. Carpenter, Richard Hagemann, Rene Chansarel and Duparc, Carpenter’s Dan-sons la Gigue was rendered with pleasing lightness and spirit. There was good feeling too in Duparc’s La Vague et la Cloche. A group of Bohemian folk songs compiled by Rev. Vincent Pisek, D. D., were unusual and interesting. Songs in English by Tom Dobson, Arthur Foote, Constance Herreshoff, Ralph J. de Golier and Charles T. Griffes made an attractive concluding group. Mr. Ryder’s diction was commendable and his singing met with an enthusiastic response. Edward Hart was the accompanist. Vera Curtis Makes Special Record of Famous Song The Aeolian Company performed its due share in the celebration of the one hundredth anniversary of the first performance of Home, Sweet Home by having two special records issued for the Vocalion and the Duo-Art. Vera Curtis, soprano, formerly of the Metropolitan Opera Company, was chosen to make the vocal record, while that for the reproducing piano was recorded by Ernest Schelling. Levenson’s Compositions at Toronto Conservatory Two of Boris Levenson’s piano compositions—Dance of the Marionettes, and La Lune Triste (the first published by B. F. Wood Music Company and the latter by Bosworth & Company)—have been accpeted by the Toronto Conservatory of Music, where they will be used for advanced students. Panizza Scores at La Scala Ettore Panizza, conductor of the Chicago Civic Opera Company, has just scored a huge success at his re-entree at La Scala in Milan, according to a cable received by the Musical Courier. Panizza re-appeared at La Scala on May 2, directing Wolf-Ferrari’s Vier Grobiane, and will conduct many other operas during the present season. Summer Study ,Mid the Mountains Mme. ANNA E. ZIEGLER Teacher of Laurette Taylor Will Conduct MASTER CLASSES IN SINGING at Woodstock, N. Y., Catskill Mts., beginning July 10. Write at once to Sec'y, Ziegler Institute, 1425 Broadway, N. Y., Metropolitan Opera House Studios or Hotel Belleclaire, Broadway & 77th St., N. Y. Originator Caruso Breath Control Method. 30 MUSICAL COURIER SHAVITCH WINS LAURELS AS CONDUCTOR IN GERMANY AND SOUTH AMERICA now usually bunched and crowded together into a single paragraph. All the more fortunate, then, the artist who gets more than a few meagre lines of attention, especially if that attention is also praise, as it has been in the case of Vladimir Shavitch. Berlin, Dresden and Leipsic, where he conducted the Berlin Symphony and Philharmonic, the Dresden Philharmonic and the Leipsic Philharmonic, treated him with such praise as could only have been bestowed upon an artist of the very highest rank. Not only were the notices devoted to his conducting far longer than the space given the average musical event, but the critics went out of their way to say nice things about him. When the papers say that a conductor made his orchestra vibrate with emotion, that he is one of the elect, one of the foremost of Slavic conductors, possessed of an artist’s soul and inspiration, inspired to the last degree, and so on, it means that the conductor has done something to arouse the enthusiasm even of these concert-worn critics—and that is far from easy. How it happened that Mr. Shavitch and his family went to South America is another story. South America is a curious place for musical artists. The whole of it, musically speaking, consists of a few large cities. There are no small-town concerts, no rural district that knows anything about musical art. In this way it differs greatly from our United States, where the artist has not only a wealth of dates in cities both large and small, but also a vast country of small cultured communities to draw from as well. So, when an artist is engaged for South America, his manager assumes a considerable risk. If the artist succeeds in pleasing the cities, well and good, but if he does not, then his tour simply has to be cut short. If, on the other hand, the artist makes a big initial success he can give as many as twenty or thirty concerts in a single city in one season. In this way South America seems to be like Australia, whose music life has already been described. Well, that is what happened to Mr. Shavitch and Tina Lerner. They were engaged to tour South American cities, and were so successful that they returned in successive seasons. Part of this success was won as solo pianists, part of it playing together, and part by Mr. Shavitch as conductor, he being the conductor of the Montevideo Symphony Orchestra. Upon several occasions Tina Lerner was soloist with the Staten Island Hears Mary Wildermann Mary Wildermann, concert pianist and teacher, was enthusiastically received by a large audience when she appeared in recital at the Curtis Lyceum, Staten Island Academy, St. George, S. I., on April 27. Miss Wildermann was a pupil in Vienna of Leschetizky, and included his Tarantella on her program. The Beethoven sonata, op. S3 and numbers by Saint-Saëns, Chopin and Brahms completed her list. This young pianist possesses, besides an extraordinary power and technic, a rare interpretive ability. Besides brilliancy she has depth of feeling and artistic insight. A Staten Island critic commended her in headlines as a “truly great master of the piano.” The same writer spoke particularly of the fine results obtained by her unusually effective pedalling. Lettie Bytton assisted Miss Wildermann on the program, singing songs by Mascagni, Grieg, Seismit-Doda, Verdi, Bohm and Karl Loewe. Mme. Bytton has a soprano voice of unusual power and range and gave pleasing interpretations of the various numbers. Mrs. Edgar Ahrens, ah artist-pupil of Miss Wildermann’s, proved a highly gifted accompanist. Miss Wildermann has large classes both on Staten Island and in New York and is constantly gaining in popularity as an excellent pedagogue. Daniel Mayer Revises List of Artists Before sailing for Europe, Daniel Mayer made some changes in his list of artists for next season. Elsa Stralia, Cecil Fanning, Ernest Schelling and Helen Jeffrey have left him to go to other managements. The revised list for 1923-24 will be as follows: Sopranos—Vera Curtis, Elena Ger-hardt, Dusolina Giannini, Nellie and Sara Kouns, Josephine Lucchese, Lenora Sparkes and Harriet Van Emden; contralto—Elizabeth Lennox; tenors—Ernest Davis and Ralph Errolle; baritones—Ernest DeWald and Pavel Ludikar; pianists—Mischa Levitzki, Guy Maier and Lee Pattison and Mitja Nikisch; violinists—Sascha Jacobsen and Erna Rubinstein; cellists—Horace Britt, Joseph Hollman and Felix Salmond; ensembles—The Letz QuartetOlive Nevin, soprano, and Harold Milligan, lecturer-pianist, in costume recitals devoted exclusively to American music, and Ruth St. Denis with Ted Shawn and the Denishawn Dancers. Mr. Mayer will also have charge of the spring tour throughout the east, south and southwest of the Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra, Henri Verbrugghen conductor. The orchestra will leave Minneapolis on April 1 and will continue on tour until May 23. Keen Interest Shown in Romaine Ninon Romaine, pianist, whose first American tour is being booked by Charles N. Drake, has aroused more than ordinary interest in the minds of musical committees throughout the country. To those who believe “there is something in” thought forces this statement will not be a surprise, for Mme. Romaine “projects vibrations” if any artist ever did. It has been remarked before that she is one of the most psychic personalities among modern musicians and the manifestations of it have been rather startling as well as numerous. Mildred Dilling Sails Mildred Dilling, harpist, with a number of her pupils, sailed for Europe, May 10, where she will spend a month traveling in Italy and Switzerland, and two months studying and coaching with pupils in France. Miss Dilling will make one appearance in Paris, and the remainder of the time she will spend at Etratat with Henriette_ Renie, of whose school of harp Miss Dilling is the American representative. Miss Dilling returns in September for engagements in Vladimir Shavitch is now in America. Leaving his wife, better known as Tina Lerner, the pianist, and his daughter, Dollina, in Germany, he came over for a quick trip on business. Mr. Shavitch is well known here and needs no introduction to the American public, but some account of his successes in Germany and South America may prove of interest. These successes were won by him as a conductor of symphony orchestras, a role in which he is not so well known in America as he is abroad. There is no profession in the world in which a man’s worth stands out more clearly than in the profession of music, and no profession in which his sins will find him (Left) Bachaus and Shavitch after rehearsal. (Right) Montevideo Symphony posters. out with greater certainty. No artist appearing in public can escape the kind attentions of the critics. Sometimes they are of the “he who gets slapped” variety, sometimes as valuable as a gold bond. But the artist himself can do nothing to control or correct their complexion. The critics are truth-tellers. No doubt they sometimes makes mistakes, but for the most part, if the critics are more or less unanimous in praise or blame, it may be depended upon that the artist is just the kind of an artist who deserves that praise or blame. It is safe, therefore, to take a man at his press value—and the press value of Vladimir Shavitch is extraordinarily high. But in order to understand what happened to him recently on his latest trip to Germany it is necessary to point out that musical criticism in the dailies of Germany is greatly hampered by want of print space. Instead of the regular daily column of music news which used to greet the readers of German papers, the comments of many concerts are Songs We Recommend for the Season of 192324־ FIRST SERIES Take Joy Home. 2 keys Bassett .60 Serenade. 2 keys .60 Two Magicians. 2 keys. 1.00 Rain. 2 keys .60 Life. 3 keys .60 Nocturne. 3 keys .60 The Answer. 2 keys. . . .60 The Windflowers. 2 key. .60 Tally-Ho! 2 keys .60 An Old Song Resung. Medium voice. Griffes .60 The Lament of lan, the Proud. High voice .60 By a Lonely Forest Pathway. High voice .60 Wings of Night. 2 keys. Watts .60 Cargoes. 2 keys .60 The Last Song. 2 keys. .60 Ecstasy. High voice.... .60 Ah, Love Will You Remember? 2 keys. Mana-Zucca .60 Star-Eyes. 3 keys .60 Love of Yesteryear. 3 keys. . . .Speaks .60 Mah Lindy Lou. 2 keys. . . .Strickland .60 Honey Chile. 3 keys. . . .60 In the Night. High voice . . .Woodman .60 To-Day. 2 keys .60 My Heart Is a Lute. High voice. Marum .60 The Night Wind. 2 keys. .60 Holiday. 2 keys 1.00 Stars. 2 keys Ware .60 G. Schirmer, Inc. New York