Music critic took his craft so seriously he was prepared to endure hate mail
Ian Dando music critic b June 23, 1934 d January 7, 2019
Renowned music reviewer Ian Dando, who has died aged 84, inspired international pianist Michael Houstoun and was also an accomplished mountaineer, photographer and broadcaster.
Dando, a gifted school music teacher, was a brave critic for publications including The Press,
The Star, and the Listener.
‘‘He treated it so seriously that he was prepared to get hate mail,’’ his son Edwin remembered.
‘‘That was Dad . . . the holder of truth of what is good in classical music.’’
Dando led a full life, successfully climbing Aoraki/Mt Cook twice and becoming the first person to traverse Mt Tasman from west to east.
Photography was another pursuit. His shot of a friend on Mt Aspiring won a gold medal in a Photographic Society of New Zealand competition.
Edwin said his father never shouted his achievements to the world. ‘‘He never boasted about the mountaineering feat. He was a very focused, determined and serious kind of man. My early memories of him are that real Kiwi attitude of anything’s possible.’’
Dando was born in Thames, the youngest child of Maurice and Hillary.
After a few years as a school teacher in Auckland, his passion for the mountains brought him to South Canterbury, where he became head teacher at the twoclassroom Claremont School near Timaru.
He inspired many pupils at Claremont, in particular a young Houstoun, who went on to become one of New Zealand’s most successful concert pianists.
‘‘He had the energy of an eccentric hyper-enthusiast – I loved it,’’ Houstoun said.
‘‘It was my great good fortune that he came to teach at the little country school I attended. He was the first truly serious musician that I knew and because of him I never saw music as just a hobby, which is how it was generally perceived in rural South Canterbury around 1960.’’
In 1965, Dando began working for the Ministry of Education as the Otago music adviser in Dunedin. After a year, he moved to Christchurch to work as a senior music lecturer at the College of Education.
He also presented more than 50 programmes on Radio New Zealand, including documentaries on Stravinsky and Mozart. He retired in 1997, but kept reviewing and broadcasting until 2016.
His son Ash said he was more a teacher than a performer.
‘‘At home he could crank out tunes on the piano or guitar . . . [but] he was more about the analysis and understanding of music.’’
Edwin said his father was a deep thinker but also had a funny side. ‘‘We had a lot of laughs together. It’s sort of a Monty Python-style of humour, very intelligent but quirky.’’
Dando was foremost a classical music enthusiast, but his tastes broadened later in life. The family said he was not a music snob but found other styles technically poor.
‘‘He wasn’t really a fan of rock or jazz when he was younger,’’ Ash said. ‘‘He was bit anti those ‘impure’ styles of music, but he mellowed as he got older.’’
Edwin remembers his father giving him a Jimi Hendrix record – one Dando did not like. ‘‘He said, ‘This friend of mine gave me this bloody blues music to listen to. I’ve listened to it and it’s just a bunch of screeching guitars. I’ve tried it a few times and I don’t like it so you can take it,’ and I was stoked.’’
John Emeleus, a colleague of Dando’s at the College of Education, said he was a bright and colourful teacher.
‘‘He was full of examples, he’d be able to catch the mood and level of the group he was working with.
‘‘He was like a walking encyclopaedia . . . he was forever expanding his horizons. At the end of one of his courses, he received a standing ovation, so he must have done something right.’’
Dando is survived by his sister Ailsa, his three sons – Stephen, Edwin and Ash – and four grandchildren. –