Pages tagged with: music

Tex Morton was a Kiwi country and western singer, also known as the ‘Yodelling Boundary Rider’. A prolific songwriter and recorder, as well as hypnotist and whip-cracker, his pioneering style eventually led him to Hollywood, and the Australasian Country Music Awards Hands of Fame.

Born Robert William Lane in Nelson, Morton left school early and started busking on street corners during the depression. In 1932 he recorded 20 songs, possibly the first country music to be recorded outside the United States. In 1933 he moved to Australia.

Frank Hofmann was an influential photographer, both commercially and artistically, introducing interwar European modernist ideas and practices into New Zealand.

Hofmann was born in 1916 in Prague, then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. He was given a camera in 1929. At 16 he joined the Prague Photographic Society, whose prevailing aesthetic was informed by a respect for pictorialism and a vital interest in the New Photography then dominating the photographic avant-garde. This pairing of influences characterised Hofmann’s work throughout his life.

Mavis Rivers was a notable cabaret and jazz singer, who attained success in Hollywood, where she recorded for major record labels.

Rivers began her career singing with her father’s band, performing for servicemen in American Samoa during the Second World War. In 1947, the family moved to Auckland, where Rivers began working in the Peter Pan cabaret. This led to over 40 recordings for the TANZA label, who also worked with three of her sisters.

Douglas Lilburn was an influential composer and music teacher who inspired and promoted later generations of local composers.

Born in Whanganui in 1915, his early years were spent on the family farm in the upper Turakina River valley. He was schooled in Whanganui and at Waitaki Boys’ High School in Ōamaru before attending Canterbury University College. There he studied journalism and, later, towards a bachelor of music. His talents as a composer were first revealed when he won a national composition prize. 

A household name for much of his career, the affable and very talented Oswald Cheesman was a pioneer of music radio broadcasting who directed the Kiwi Concert Party in the Second World War before helping to establish New Zealand's first national orchestra.

Oswald Cheesman’s passion for music was discovered in his high school years. Choosing to fill spare hours with piano practice, he displayed a talent beyond his years.