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Show VOICE CONTESTS TO BUDDED ATTRACTION FOR CHAUTAUQUA Two Selected Here After Process of Elimination Will Have Opportunity to Represent St. George at the State Contest to Which the Atwater Kent Foundation Pays Expenses; Final National Rewards Total $25,000 in Cash Prizes and Scholarships in Eastern Conservatories of Music As an added attraction for Chautauqua Chau-tauqua week in St. George, October 16, 17, 18 and 19, the St. George chamber of commerce has accepted the invitation of the McCune School of Music and Art, of Salt Lake, who manage the Atwater Kent auditions in this state, to hold local tryouts for the third annual Atwater Kent radio contest. Preliminary contests will be held the first three nights and finals the last night, the winners, win-ners, one young man and one young lady between the ages of 18 and 25, to be given the opportunity to participate in the state contest. The winners of the state audition will compete in the district tryouts and these winners in turn will enter the national contest. It is most important for local contestants con-testants to understand that the purpose pur-pose of the Atwater Kent Founda-ion Founda-ion is not to conduct a popularity contest, but to select the best young singers of the community who expect ex-pect to enter upon a musical career ca-reer and to help them realize their ambition by providing them opportunity oppor-tunity to study, and funds for part, at least, of their expenses while studying. The human tendency to vote for a popular young man or woman, or a pleasing personality, is one of the factors in all local contests that should be guarded against. While these qualities are not to be depreciated, it is the meritorious meri-torious voice for which the Foundation Found-ation is searching. Furthermore, the selection of a singer from the point of view of personal popularity in preference to one of better musical qualifications may defeat the very idea behind the pride in having a local winner go on to further success. Local popular- ity seldom extends beyond the locality lo-cality in which the person lives and, when the successive steps of state and district auditions are considered, con-sidered, with their larger audiences, mostly of strangers, it is insurance of more satisfaction to local pride to have the best singer rather than the most popular selected to compete. com-pete. The pair of winners from each town or community in the state will be certified to the state audition by the accredited local committee, and through this certification only do they become qualified to enter the state audition. Originated as an altruistic experiment experi-ment in 1927, continued in 1928 because be-cause of popular demand, the wisdom wis-dom of the Foundation's aim to discover dis-cover the best young non-professional voices in the United States and give to the singers an opportunity oppor-tunity for further training, recognition recogni-tion and reward has more than justified jus-tified itself, and the audition has become a national institution. One hundred thousand young men and women participated in the successful suc-cessful elimination contests in more than a thousand cities during the first two years. The final national awards this year will be as follows: Winners of first place (one boy and one girl), $5000 each and two years' tuition in an American conservatory. con-servatory. Winners of second place, $3000 each and one year's tuition. Winners of third place, $2000 each and one year's tuition. Winners of fourth place, $1500 each and one year's tuition. Winners of fifth place, $1000 each and one year's tuition. |