JOHN MCKENNA (tenor)
GWENDOLEN MASON (harp)
Gwendolen Mason is professor and examiner at the Royal Academy of Music and is well known in Britain and abroad as a gifted soloist. One of her great admirers is Dame Ethel Smyth , who has written for Miss Mason several elaborate harp parts in her operas and songs. Miss Mason has on several occasions played Ravel's Septet with the composer, notably when the degree of Doctor of Music was conferred on him by the University of Oxford.
John McKenna has given many recitals in London and has appeared at a number of important concerts, including the Royal Philharmonic Society in 1928, and for four years he sang in opera at Covent Garden. During the war Mr. McKenna served in France, and shortly after the Armistice he entered the Royal College of Music, where he studied for four years. He then went for two years to Italy and later to Germany.
At Leipzig he was engaged by Professor Straube, the Cantor of the Thomas-Kirche, to sing at the Bach Festival in 1931.