Musical Studies and Early Career
Henderson began study at the Royal Academy of Music in 1920, on the advice of the bass Robert Radford. He studied hard under Thomas Meux (singing) and John Blackwood McEwen (composition). He sang in Messiah once, in 1923, and vowed never to do so again. He made his first broadcast for the BBC (the first of very many) in 1924. In 1925, while he was still studying, he had the wonderful opportunity to sing in Delius's A Mass of Life at the Queen's Hall for the Royal Philharmonic Society, and was able to prepare the work and sing it from memory with the greatest success, within three weeks. The performance, on 2 April, was with Miriam Licette, Astra Desmond and Walter Widdop, conducted by Paul von Klenau. He was awarded the Worshipful Company of Musicians' medal as most distinguished student of the year, and so his name as a professional singer was immediately made. He was married in 1926.
Read more about this topic: Roy Henderson (baritone)
Famous quotes containing the words musical, studies, early and/or career:
“Fifty million Frenchmen can’t be wrong.”
—Anonymous. Popular saying.
Dating from World War I—when it was used by U.S. soldiers—or before, the saying was associated with nightclub hostess Texas Quinan in the 1920s. It was the title of a song recorded by Sophie Tucker in 1927, and of a Cole Porter musical in 1929.
“Even the poor student studies and is taught only political economy, while that economy of living which is synonymous with philosophy is not even sincerely professed in our colleges. The consequence is, that while he is reading Adam Smith, Ricardo, and Say, he runs his father in debt irretrievably.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“In the course of twenty crowded years one parts with many illusions. I did not wish to lose the early ones. Some memories are realities, and are better than anything that can ever happen to one again.”
—Willa Cather (1873–1947)
“What exacerbates the strain in the working class is the absence of money to pay for services they need, economic insecurity, poor daycare, and lack of dignity and boredom in each partner’s job. What exacerbates it in upper-middle class is the instability of paid help and the enormous demands of the career system in which both partners become willing believers. But the tug between traditional and egalitarian models of marriage runs from top to bottom of the class ladder.”
—Arlie Hochschild (20th century)