Yehudi Menuhin, seventeen-year-old violin prodigy, yesterday announced that he has contributed his $3,000 fee for his three performances with the Philadelphia Orchestra to the Orchestra Association.
The gift came about due to an erroneous announcement that Menuhin agreed to have his Friday afternoon appearance with the orchestra broadcast. Menuhin’s concert specifically stipulated no broadcasting.
For hours the wires between New York and Philadelphia were kept hot with telegrams to Yehudi’s managers, requesting them to permit the prodigy to broadcast. But they said: “A contract is a contract, and we must stick by this one.”
It is understood that Dr. Stokowski personally pleaded with the boy on behalf of the Philadelphia Orchestra’s millions of radio listeners, not to disappoint them. When Menuhin was made aware of the gravity of the situation, he entreated his managers by telephone to yield. The Columbia Broadcasting System agreed to pay Menuhin $4,500 to go on with the broadcast.
Then Yehudi donated his $3,000 concert fee to the Philadelphia Orchestra Association. This gesture is but one of three the seventeen-year-old humanitarian has made to orchestras in the United States. On April 8 he will play gratis a three concerto program in San Francisco’s great Civic Auditorium to help rescue that city’s orchestra from financial collapse. The house is already sold out for the event. Returns are expected to exceed $40,000.
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