Erik Chisholm - Scottish Career and World War II

Scottish Career and World War II

After his education, Chishom's work was described as "daring and original", according to Sir Hugh Roberton, while also displaying a strong Scottish character in works such as his Pibroch Piano Concerto (1930), the Straloch Suite for Orchestra (1933) and the Sonata An Riobhan Dearg (1939). In 1933 he was the soloist at the première of his piano concerto no. 1 in Amsterdam. From 1930 he was the musical director of the Glasgow Grand Opera Society which performed in the city's Theatre Royal, conducting the British premières of Mozart's Idomeneo in 1934 and Berlioz's Les Troyens and Béatrice et Bénédict in 1935 and 1936, respectively. He was also the founding conductor of both the Barony Opera Society, the Scottish Ballet Society, the Professional Organists' Association, and in 1938 he was appointed music director of the Celtic Ballet. As director he composed four works in collaboration with Margaret Morris, the most famous being The Forsaken Mermaid; the first ever full-length Scottish ballet to be written. Chisholm had many friends in the music world, including composers like Bartók, Hindemith, Delius, Bax, Nikolai Medtner, Karol Szymanowski, Ireland, Bush, and invited many of them to Scotland to perform their works.

At the outbreak of World War II, Chisholm, a conscientious objector, was declared unfit for military service on the basis of poor eyesight and a crooked arm. During the war he conducted performances with the Carl Rosa Opera Company in 1940, and later joined the Entertainments National Service Association as a colonel touring Italy with the Anglo-Polish Ballet in 1943 and served as musical director to the South East Asia Command between 1943 and 1945. He first formed a multi-racial orchestra in India, however after arguments with his superior, Col. Jack Hawkins, he was removed to Singapore. Here in 1945 he founded the Singapore Symphony Orchestra. Many of the musicians were ex-Prisoners of War, and from them Chisholm recruited Szymon Goldberg as leader. Goldberg had successfully hidden his Stradivarius violin up a chimney in the prison camp for three and a half years. Chisholm created a truly cosmopolitan orchestra of fifteen nationalities from East and West, which gave 50 concerts in Malaya within six months. After returning to Scotland, Chisholm married his second wife, Lillias, the daughter of Scottish composer Francis George Scott. In 1946 he was appointed professor of music at the University of Cape Town and director of the South African College of Music.