Detroit

Two most interesting and unusual artists appeared in a joint concert at Detroit last week, Eva Gautbier, soprano, and E. Robert Schmitz, pianist. Both of these artists are notable for giving novel and even startling programs in which the shocks of modernistic composition are prominent. Their list of songs and piano pieces in Detroit did not undershoot expectations.

Eva Gauthier is the sort of person who arouses curiosity and imagination. She is a little French Canadian, dark, eager eyed and sprightly. Her movements are rapid and unaffected. A glance at her reveals a singular flame of honesty and intelligence. She sings with a pretty voice and a simply astounding amount of understanding, artistry and grace. With the sort of music she sings, a mere correct intonation of the ear-confounding sounds is an astonishment. In the ensemble of impressions, this little woman wears a strangely exotic air.

Her career has been one to make into a fantastic novel. She studied in Paris, and, as scarcely more than a student, created one of the roles in Pelleas under the coaching of Debussy. Then, with a brilliant career in her hands, she married a Hollander, an official in the East Indies. To Java she went to preside over a satrap's strange eastern household. She lived there for several years. As a powerful white functionary's wife, she moved as a great person among the potentates of the oriental island. She tells of living as an honored guest in the harem of the Sultan of Solo. The orient entered her spirit. Of course, she studied the strange and subtle music of the Javanese. She returned to the West, to America, and re-began the career that her marriage had broken off by giving a series of recitals in which she featured Javanese songs. Her success in these led her to a specialization in exotic and other strange sorts of music.