THE MICHIGAN DAILY
Cleveland Orchestra Presents
Concerts For Public Schools
35,000 Students Heard
19 Programs Last Year;
System Widely Copied
Twenty years ago, at its very in-
ception, , the Cleveland Orchestra
,established a :close alliance with the:
public school systems of the city and
its residential suburbs and that first
year gave a number of evening con-
certs in high school buildings for pu-
pils and their parents..
This past year 19 concerts for chil-
dren and young people were given in
Severance Hall with an attendance of
34,549, and four concerts of this type
were given on tour.
For the past eight years, the music
appreciation classes of the public
schools have been based upon the
,pograms played in the Educational
Seres of the Cleveland Orchestra
under its associate conductor, Ru-
dolph Ringwall. The supervisor of
music appreciation, Lillian Luverne'
Eadwin, prepares the material
whici is printed and distributed to
the fourth, -fifth, and sixth grades,
-and to junior and senior high school
students who are eligible to attend
these special day-time concerts.
Every child has at least 10 study
periods on the programs and com-
posers. Then once a year, under'
the direction of the Women's Com-
rmittee of the Cleveland Orchestra, a:
contest is held in Severance Hall atc
which school teams compete in mu-}
sical appreciation and recognition oft
instruments, works, and composers
for divisional and personal awards of
banners and medals. So popular has
this become that adults enter the tests
just for fun, without any hope of
even a ribbon award.
The system has been studied by
music leaders from all over the na-'
tion ' and from foreign countries and
is widely followed today. Thousands
of children have passed through the
portals of the home of The Cleveland'
Orchestra and have continued to
show interest in the work of the or-
ganization upon graduating from
school. Today the project embraces
not only Cleveland but nine subur-
ban cities as well.
There has grown up a pattern of
ideal behavior among school children
as a result of these concerts and be-
cause the music has been selected to
appeal to their years and knowledge,
they are alert and quiet listeners.
They are taught according to the
theory thattmusic is an individual ex-
perience involving direct exposure to
music itself and intensified by a back-
ground of knowledge.
The Cleveland Orchestra has not
confined this interesting and valuable
contribution to public education to its
Piatgorsky Known
As*greatest Cellist
Gregor Piatigorsky was born April
17, 1903, in Jekaterinoslav. His extra-
ordinary and precocious talent caused
him to be selected first violincellist of
the Imperial Opera at Moscow at the
age of 15. He was already well on his
way to a brilliant career in Russia
when the Revolution came, and the
Imperial Opera disbanded with the
fall of the Imperial rouse. Piatigor-
sky made his way to Berlin where, al-
though unknown and poverty-strick-
en, he entered a competition for posi-
tion of first cellist with the Berlin
Philharmonic Orchestra, directed by
the great Furtwangler. He was suc-
cessful, and soon became a featured
soloist.
Presently outside engagements be-
gan to pour in, and Piatigorsky
found his fame spreading through-
out Europe. Finally he was forced
to resign from the Philharmonic to
devote himself to concert appearances.
His fame soon became international,
and his reputation grew to as great
proportions on this side of the Atlan-
tic as on the other. Today he is gen-
erally recognized for what the Cleve-
land Press calls him, "The greatest
living cellist."
own home city, but has presented 127
children's concerts in other cities
during its 20 years of touring on the
concert stage.
But Prima Donna Doesn't
Share Other Stars' Love
Of CookingOwn Meals
Swing addicts will be pleased to
learn that Kirsten Flagstad, greatestl
Wagnerian soprano in the world to-!
day, numbers herself among their
ranks. The celebrated diva listens to'
Goodman. Dorsey et al. on the air
whenever she has time.
She is also very fond of movies and
often goes to two the same evening,
even when there's a double feature.
Her favorite star is Greta Garbo, but
she also likes Jeanette MacDonald,
Gary Cooper, William Powell axd
Fred Astaire.
Although many of her opera sic
colleages make a hobby of coo'cu'g
their own meals, Miss Flagstad dcLs
not care for the culinary art except
as consumer. "The Germans ceok
because they do not enjoy food pre-
pared by others," is the way she ex-
plains the passion of other prima
donnas for preparing their own late
meals. When she is singing : ne cats'
only one full meal a day. She eats'
what she likes without following any
diet rules.
Miss Flagstad's personal life is dis-
tinguished by its lack of ostensation.
She does not even travel with a maid.
Kirsten Flagstad Likes Swing
Music, Movies And Solitaire,
KIRSTEN FLAGSTAD
1- £
She packs her own suitcase and
dresses herself, even during perform-
ances, unless she has a quick change
to make, in which case she has the:
wardrobe mistress to help her. TheE
only break in her simple routine
comes at the conclusion of each per-!
formance, when, if things have gone'
well, she rewards herself with a blf
bottle of champagne. If she is not'
satisfied with her singing she denies
herself even this little extravagance.3
Although fond of American food'
and particularly of squab chicken,
she misses the fish dishes of her na-
tive Norway. One of her Y avorite
combinations is a herring and cacum-'
ber salad to go with roast beef. For
breakfast she enjoys a slice of toast
spread with anchovy paste.
A chief diversion of Miss Flagstad's
is solitaire. A chance remark to a
newspaper reporter that she lied
this amusement brought a deluge of
letters from fans suggesting numer-
ous varieties of the game. Some of
them were so intricate that they mde
her dizzy to read, even though she is
no novice at complicated card gang s.
Twelve make up her present reper-
tory; she says this is as many as she
can conveniently remember. Often
after a performance she playa soli-
taire until the small hours of the
Six Soloists, Foii r
Ensembles Comning
(Continued from Page 1)
concert of the season Feb. 27. First
violincellist of the Moscow Imperial
Opera at 15, this artist has convinced
American as well as European audi-
ences that his instrument can be as:
sensitive and expressive as the violin.1
He has also served as first violincellist
with the Berlin Philharmonic Orches-
tra.
The Roth String Quartet, which
scored ian immediate triumph in its
appearance here last year, will return
for the final concert on the program
March 9. In its ten year career the
quartet has gained a reputation as
"one instrument played by eight
hands." It has been a particular fav-
orite with college audiences in its
series of triumphant tours in Ameri-
ca. The group has proved so popular
in this country that all four members,
native Americans, have become natur-
alized American citizens.
Early Hofmann Programs
Discovered After Search
Many programs of tale earliest, con-
certs of Josef Hofmann were discov-
ered as a result ofdthe widespread
publicationof the desire of Anton
Hofmann, the artist's son, to obtain
copies. Included were programs of the
remaining 17 concerts the 10-year-
old prodigy gave in 1887, the year of
his debut, but only two of the pro-
grams from the debut itself were un-
earthed, one in the files of the New
York Public Library.
One of the programs found actu-
ally antedated the debut, however. It
was of a private recital given for the
press at Wallack's Theatre the after-
noon of the day of the first public ap-
pearance.
morning, until the music that is stil
racing through her head stops and
she can go to sleep.
The prima donna has a lucky piez.
which she always carries with her. i:
is a 50 centime piece which she
found the day Artur Bodanzky and
Gatt-Casazza heard an audition it
a hotel room in Bayreuth in 1934 and
signed her for the Metropolitan. Sh
had the coin, which she found at hei
feet as she was about to begin singing
set in a bracelet and has worn it ever
since.
Iturbi's Genius
Brought Fame
In Early Years
(Continued from Page 4)
field marshal's baton was carried in
the knapsack of every soldier. Iturbi
has long contended 'that there is a
conductor's baton up the sleeve of
every musician. So far. as he himself
is concerned, for years he has been
studying the great symphonic scores,
attending the rehearsals of famous
conductors, analyzing and memoriz-
ing the vast orchestral repertory.
His chance came in the spring of
1933. He was in Mexico City, en-
gaged for 20 piano recitals in six
weeks. His success was sensational.
The public was in the palm of his
hands. It was then he seized the op-
portunity to step from the keyboard
to the podium. After the first con-
cert the newspaper "El Universal"
announced: "In music the life of
our times divides itself from today
into two great chapters: before and
after Iturbi." A dozen performances
followed culmina..'g in Beethoven's
Ninth Symphony. A permanent Or-
chestra Iturbi of 103) men was or-
ganized which Iturbi vill direct again
next year.
Returning to New York in the sum-
rner Iturbi was invited to officiate
as guest conductor of the Philhar-
monic Symphony Orchestra at the
Stadium Concerts. He made an im-
mediate and profound impression; as
r a result was offered the honor of di-
recting the closing concert of the sea-
son.
IPianist or conductor, Iturbi is al-
ways the complete artist, no matter
what the medium of his interpreta-
tion, no matter what the period of
his music. In the classic, the ro-
I mantic, or the modern, he is the mu-
I sician's yardstick, the critic's delight,
the public's idol. True to himself
and to his music, his art is-all things
t to all people.
MARINEE IDOL TIBBETT
Lawrence Tibbett has made several
d movies in the past few years. His
e earliest was "The Rogue Song," which
r he followed by "The Prodigal," "New
Mo'on," "Cuban Love Song," and oth-
r ers. His best known hit was "Under
Your Spell.
A
THE CHORAL UNION
PRESENTS
(_'
k.
I
LAWRENCE
TIBBETT,
famous
American
I
baritone, will be heard here October 27.
In
I
both branches of his art he looms with a gleam-
ing brilliance. His glorious voice, perfectly
schooled thrills the listener as he has, doubtless,
not been thrilled before.
Lawrence Tibbett
. . .
YEIHUDI MENUHIN, violinist, favored by
the power which controls our destinies, was
gifted above most mortals; that gift, wisely de-
veloped until its possessor is no longer a prodigy
of startling manual skill, but an artist whose
sensibility and musical intellect equal his techni-
cal resources. -Boston Globe.
Mr. 'Menuhin will be heard here February 15.
YeHudi Menuhin
SIXTIETH ANNUAL SERIES
". ' Iy ? nI
i
KIRSTEN FLAGSTAD
"GREATER THAN EVER" is the verdict of the
press on the incomparable Kirsten Flagstad.
Current feeling about the First Lady of the Opera
is voiced by Oscar Thompson of the NewvYork
Sun who says "There is reason to ponder anew
the rare good fortune of a generation privileged
to hear singing of splendor"
I 1 1,