Books › Musical Courier 1928-12-20: Vol 97 Iss 25, 1928 › scan 23
Scan 23
Musical Courier 1928-12-20: Vol 97 Iss 25, 1928
66 lines. Read by computer on 30 September 2026. Printed page 24. See the scan on archive.org.
1Caroline Lowe's Specialty Is Getting Results
3"What is your specialty?" was asked of Caroline Lowe, prominent vocal teacher of New York and Cleveland.
5"I hardly know," was her reply, "unless one calls getting results a specialty, and I do get results, for I have a system of work which tells. I systematize everything from the start, and getting voices started is my especial joy; a voice once started correctly, under careful guidance and with the right cooperation, is certain to develop in the right direction.
7"How do I do it? I first establish breath control, and then, working with the middle voice up and down I develop the voice in range, power and beauty, being careful to maintain a definite evenness throughout. After a very short time I know what a voice is best suited for, and develop the singer along that line; it may be operetta, opera, church, concert field or Broadway show—no matter what the voice is best suited for, that is the goal to which we work. Many are fit to become teachers only, and these I train accordingly. 'Develop with an end in view is my motto.' (And the writer agrees this is a very practical ideal).
9"I sometimes feel I have had what one might call 'hospital experience in voice training,' for I have taken voices pronounced incurable by throat specialists, and made them well and strong; I have eliminated tremolos, restored to health voices strained and broken by wrong work, and developed lovely voices from weak nothings.
11"You see I made my preparation for teaching a real study; believing a thorough musical foundation to be the first essential, I began as organist and musical director, growing into a real organist, with recitals in San Diego, on the big out-door organ there, and on the Pan-American organ in Elmwood Hall, Buffalo, and in various other places.
13"At the same time I did extensive accompanying for several noted singers; later I combined all my thought and effort toward teaching, and under the guidance of such masters as Shakespeare, Randegger, and others, I found the way to what I call 'an infallible method of teaching people how to sing.'"
15"With what type of voice do you have the greatest success?"
17"I have equal success with both the male and female voices, including the elusive tenor and contralto. The application of my principles can do but one thing to any voice, and so working I have the pleasure of seeing my students, both male and female, become successful singers in various branches of the musical field."
19"To what one factor over all others do you attribute your success?"
21"Success is a result of sincere and honest effort toward the accomplishment of the right, a love for one's work, and loving to give of one's best at all times. There is no single factor; it is the combining, finding the place for everything. So is success allied to life, and so we find it in study and application."
23All of this sounds and reads so sensibly that one wonders why there are not more students today in the field of music, devoting time and effort toward becoming successful, helpful teachers.
25R.
27Donahue Coming East Soon
29Lester Donahue, pianist, who has been in California, has decided not to play any concerts there until later. He will return to New York in January, by way of Panama, and will in all probability give a recital here in February.
31When Mr. Donahue was the guest of honor at one of the music clubs in Los Angeles, Isabel Morse Jones, in the Times of that city, wrote in part:
33"As previously reported in these columns, Lester Donahue has had a most unusual success in Paris and the German cities. The scientific minds of Germany, including the great Einstein, gathered to investigate the latest invention in the piano world, the Hammond pedal, which enables the player to color tone and prolong vibrations beyond all previous dreams. The mechanism was used on a Steinway piano.
35"While in Paris, Mr. Donahue was heard by Georges Migot, about whom Irving Schwerke has written, 'no contemporary French composer is more serious or unique and interesting than he.' Migot understood the intricacies of the Hammond pedals at once and produced a manuscript which he had composed and marked for the new pedaling for just such a piano, saying that he knew it would come some day. Mr. Donahue will play this new Migot work in America."
37Swain Repeats Success in Various Cities
39Edwin Orlando Swain, as usual with this artist, is reaping success wherever he sings. Following a recent appearance in Muncie, Ind., the Muncie Evening Press reporter commented enthusiastically on the baritone's art, concluding his remarks with "Mr. Swain sang with the ease that has won for him the reputation of being one of the country's foremost baritones and achieved both mellowness and depth."
41Following an engagement in Portsmouth, Va., the Portsmouth News declared that the recital was a complete success from every standpoint. "Mr. Swain proved to be very popular with his audience," wrote the critic of this paper, "and was very accommodating, responding with a cheerful smile to the demands for encores of selections that were special favorites with his hearers. The selections evidently were picked with a fine regard for the tastes of the audience, and while the so-called popular numbers were eschewed, pieces that have become part of the musical tradition of the South and especially of his section of Virginia were featured."
43Mrs. L. A. Torrens Teaching in New York
45Mrs. L. A. Torrens, widow of the late L. A. Torrens, who was well known as a teacher of singing both in New York and throughout the entire country, has announced that she will carry on the work of her husband at both of his New York studios.
47Mrs. Torrens is exceptionally well fitted to handle the work, as she has had many years of experience and has studied her husband's method thoroughly. All of the pupils that were studying with Mr. Torrens at the time of his death have returned to continue their vocal studies with Mrs. Torrens. Such an expression of faith proves their regard for her ability to give to them the same calibre of teaching for which Mr. Torrens was noted.
49Van Buren Completes Models for Museum
51Lotta Van Buren, whose work in the playing and restoration of old keyboard instruments is well known, has just completed for the Newark Museum two small scale models showing the units of action of the clavichord and the harpsichord. It is understood that these models are so simply constructed that even a child can comprehend what always has been a particularly foggy subject to most professional pianists, many of whom have a way of calling every keyboard instrument which antedates the piano a "spinet."
53Pasquale Taraffo Coming
55Pasquale Taraffo, concertist of the guitar, with his unique instrument of his own creation, is to appear in America for a series of appearances which will begin at the Gallo Theatre, December 23, under the management of Burke and Stegner.
57Taraffo has been a popular attraction on the concert platforms in Italy, Spain, and South America, and recently established a concert record in Barcelona where he played forty consecutive concerts in that city.
59Critics have been unanimous in pronouncing the art of Taraffo unique among instrumentalists. Not only was he among the first to demonstrate that artistry on the guitar is capable of attracting and holding the attention of the concert going public, but he developed a repertoire which caused widespread comment wherever he has appeared.
61Selections from the works of Grieg, Chopin, Schubert, Liszt, Sarasate, Rossini, Bellini, Verdi, Mascagni, Bizet, Margutti, Tarrega, Monti and Vinas will comprise the major portion of his inaugural program and a special feature scheduled is his own composition, a march, dedicated to President-elect Hoover and entitled Prosperity March.
63N. Y. School of Music and Arts Concert
65The New York School of Music and Arts, Ralfe Leech Sterner, president, contained an audience filling the concert salons, December 13, when a varied program of piano and vocal music was heard. Eight pianists and six vocalists shared in interpreting the music, all of it of high class and done in a fashion which brought credit to all concerned. Some new students, heard for the first time, were Misses Grahn, Teresa Tadaro and Fay, singers with excellent voices, each of whom received due applause. Little Rita Callahan, pianist, was absolutely correct in every note of her three-page piece; Antoinette Kline, Margaret Noonan and Miss Tuchey, all sang finely and Nadia Rutenberg played Liszt's E flat concerto (first movement) with power and brilliancy. The sisters Gross performed a Moszkowski duet, Juliet Gross also playing a Schubert Moment Musical very well, and Dorothea Miller winning applause for her performance of Polichinelle. Rose Sypian delighted with Schubert's Impromptu in A flat, and a final, most effective number was the von Weber Concert Stück, the solo piano played by George Vanson, with Prof. Riesberg, his instructor, at a second piano; this went with brilliancy and variety of touch, bringing hearty applause.
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