Evening star., 1940-11-03

summer series. An estimated 10000
paying and non-paying patrons saw
and heard the first opera at the
Water Gate. Other thousands were
turned away. Encouraged by the
public response, the National SYM
phony scheduled four operatic pro-
ductions for its 1910 summer season.
This summer, therefore, Washington
was given grand opera and Gilbert
and Sullivan as well as the voices
of Kristen Flagstad and Helen Trau-
bel, with others.
Ranking in importance with the
Sunset Symphonies" are the stu
dents concerts. No foe of swing or the
popular songs of the day, DR.. Kind
Ter has steadfastly maintained that
they are limited forms in compare
son with the great symphonies. Chill
dren, he has said, love good music
instinctively and only turn to SEEM
lngly more spontaneous music when
the better works are badly presented.
For the first four seasons. the
childrens concerts were presented in
the Central High School auditorium.
But by the fifth season, hundreds
of youngsters were demanding the
music and had to be turned away.
Enlarged provisions had to be made
for the audience which had aver
aged only 375 children per concert
the first year. During the fifth
season, nine concerts we're played
in three different high schools and
the final concert, which 1000 young
people attended, was given in Con-
stitution Hall. Even more schools
are now used for the concerts and
the Board of Education has in
creased its cooperation as the en-
thusiasm of the students has
mounted. Students are not only ex-
cused from classes to attend the
concerts but are given credit in
their music courses.
Student Memberships.
While the original plan was to
give the students concerts without
charge, it was later decided that
better audience would be developed
if the children paid for the privilege
of attending them. The childrens
quarters, of course, do not defray
the cost of the concerts but the
students concerts are not wholly a
loss to the orchestra, for the young
sters annually raise money by cir
cuses, plays and all kinds of en-
deavors to buy memberships in the
National Symphony Orchestra Asso-
citation.
Another dream of the men and
women who started the orchestra on
its way was that it would some day
travel as the other great musical
bodies had done before it. Last year,
the orchestra journeyed many hun
dreds of miles, presenting so con-
certS on tour.
AT home, the Wednesday and
Sunday concerts have brought the
finest Soloists of the day to WASH
ington, among them Melchior, Tib-
bett, Ponselle, Schipa, hampton,
Thomas, Martini, Heifetz, Crooks,
Spalding, Zimbalist. Szigeti, Hof-
mann, RoSenthal, Hess, Gieseking
and Lhevinne.
George Gershwin's last perform
ance in public was with the Ma
tional Symphony. appearing as
soloist in his own piano concerto
and in the first performance of ex-
cerpts from his opera, ''Porgy and
Bess."
The orchestra has introduced
such brilliant newcomers to WASH
ington audiences as Ossy Renardy.
1t has given number of young
artists the opportunity to appear
with symphony orchestra. Its
guest conductors have included Wal
ter Damrosch and Bruno Walter.
Premieres Here.
More than score of compositions
have been given their world or
American premieres in Washington.
Well over a hundred more have been
played for the first time in WASH
ington. 1t has made possible the
first ballet presentations in WASH
ngton with full symphony or
chestra.
Hand in hand with the growth of
the National Symphony have come
increased musical activities through
out the city. Three chamber music
organizations Powered out. Choral
performers were connected with the
orchestra. The demand for a mu-
sic section in the Public Library
was met.
While the orchestra still has a
precarious financial existence, it
goes into it's tenth season with q
repertoire unlimited by the artistic
obstacles that used to be stumbling
blocks. The war will keep certain
soloists from appearing and the
new music will, Of necessity, come
from America. But DR.. Kinder will
not have to exclude certain selec-
tions because a section of his or.
chestra is so badly represented that
the work cannot be played.
Where 10 years ago concert going
In Washington was limited to q
comparatively few, today there's
scarcely a home in the city that
hasn't at least one concert-goer-
whether it's the schoolchild who
attends the student concerts, the
older boy who hears the "Sunsel
Symphonies" from a canoe at th<
Water Gate, or the parents who g
to Constitution Hall for the Wed
nesday and Sunday concerts.
Music has come to Washington-