Music: Debut

Bare-kneed, clean-scrubbed nine-year-old Michael Spivak stepped to the podium of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra. Dignified Sir Ernest MacMillan, the Toronto’s conductor, gravely stepped down, handed Michael his birch baton. Michael handed him an ocarina in exchange.

Then nine-year-old Michael Spivak (whose father is concertmaster of the orchestra) gravely led the musicians through two movements of Haydn’s “Toy” Symphony. At the proper moments, a two-note “cuckoo” chirped from the orchestra. It was Sir Ernest, on the ocarina.

Schoolboy Michael learned the Haydn symphony by playing it over & over again on the phonograph, then trying parts on the piano. Newsmen asked him about his musical plans. Said he: “I think I’m a little young yet just to say.”