"Incentive to Try"

While talented Negro soloists have become commonplace in the U.S., virtually no Negroes have mounted the podiums of major U.S. orchestras.* Last week, one did. Henry Lewis, 28, a bass player for ten years with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, was filling in for ailing Igor Markevitch, led a topnotch, widely acclaimed concert that included Dvorak's Fourth Symphony and Beethoven's concert aria Ah Perfido!, sung by Lewis' wife, Soprano Marilyn Home. Vigorous, sweeping Conductor Lewis had previously led the Seventh Army Orchestra and the Los Angeles String Society, a group he formed himself in 1958, will conduct several other Philharmonic concerts. Said he last week: "One of the most important things I can do now is give other Negroes the incentive to try."

* Talented Negro Conductor Dean Dixon was never able to get a major post in the U.S., is now the head of the Hesse Radio Orchestra in Frankfurt.

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