Associated Press Photo.

KURTIS BROWNELL DIES IN ACCIDENT

Young Tenor Is Injured Fatally Swerving to Avoid a Horse Near Oklahoma City.
ON WAY TO GIVE CONCERT

He had Sung at the Metropolitan and Had Been Praised by -Walter Damrosch.

News was received here yesterday of the death of Kurtis (Kurt) Brownell, a young tenor known in music circles as a singer of great talent and promise, who was injured fatally in an automobile accident on Saturday near Oklahoma City, Okla.

Mr. Brownell's wife and accompanist, the former Marian Kalaijan, and Miss Josephine Antoine, coloratura soprano of the Metropolitan Opera Company, were passengers in his car at the time, but escaped serious injury. Miss Antoine, although she suffered leg injuries, was able to fill their joint concert engagement at Oklahoma City on Saturday night.

Miss Antoine and the Brownells were on a two-week concert tour of the Middle West under tne auspices of the National Music League. They had given the first concert of the series at Stillwater, Okla., and were on their way to Oklahoma City when the accident occurred.

Mr. Brownell was driving the car. A horse ahead of the machine shied and ran directly in front of it. To avoid hitting the animal, Mr. Brownell drove off the road, wrecking the machine. He was still alive when he was taken to a hospital, where he died early yesterday morning.

Parents Leave for Chicago.
The body will be taken to Chicago for the funeral from the home of his parents there. Interment will be in Evanston, Ill. His parents had been living in his apartment in this city at 19 Seaman Avenue. They left for Chicago yesterday.

Kurtis Brownell was 27 years old. He was born in Winnetka, Ill. near Chicago. His father is American, his mother Danish. As a boy he was the soprano soloist of the Chicago choir. He studied at the Juilliard School of Music under Francis Rodgers and in France at the Fontainebleau Conservatory under M. Salignae.

In 1931 he was one of the four winners in a field of 223 applicants for the Walter W. Naumberg Foundation Prize, and as his reward he made his debut in a recital at Town Hall on Jan. 26, 1932. Since his appearance in competitive auditions he had become a member of the New York Opera Comique Company and had sung leading roles in its presentations here and on tour.

As a Naumberg winner, he was sent on transcontinental tours by the National Music League in 1932 and 1933. He also was heard in a MacDowell Club performance of "At the Boar's Head" two years ago.

Beplaced Bichard Crooks.
This Spring, while he was appearing with the Opera Comique at the Auditorium in Chicago in "Tales of Hoffman," he was called to New York to take the place of Richard Crooks in the third act of "Die Meistersinger," presented at the Metropolitan in the celebration of the fiftieth anniversary of Walter Damrosch as a conductor.

Mr. Crooks was taken ill. Fritz Reiner, conductor of the Philadelphia Opera, and others who had heard Mr. Brownell, suggested him to Dr. Damrosch. Dr. Damrosch recalled his singing of Prince Hal in the MacDowell Club performance and called him. Memorizing the act in one day, Mr. Brownell gave what Dr. Damrosch termed a "remarkable performance/*

During the Summer Mr. Brownell appeared as a soloist at the Riverside Church. He had been engaged by the National Broadcasting Company and the present tour was to have been his last under the National Music League's auspices. Edward Johnson, general manager of the Metropolitan, was interested in him and he was to have had a second audition at the Metropolitan. soon.

Mrs. Frederick Steinway, president of the National Music League, expressing the grief of the league"s officers, said last night that "Mr. Brownell had the biggest talent the league had ever found.'