A very special `old boy' returns to Saltus Grammar School on Friday evening to take part in `An Evening of Music', presented by the Saltus Concert Society.

Composer and pianist, 86-year-old Laurence Dill will accompany soprano Christina Li in three of his songs, which have a Bermudian theme.

"He is a very good pianist, and still very much on top of it all!'' says Mrs.

Li, who teaches at the Dunbarton School of Music. "One of the songs was composed by him while he was still at school, and there's another one, for which he wrote the music, and a friend wrote the words. It's a very nostalgic piece about a homesick soldier in the First World War who is missing Bermuda.

We are enjoying rehearsing for the concert. He's marvellous, really -- still writing and composing.'' Mr. Dill, who studied at the Juilliard School in New York and the Royal College of Music in London, says he has just embarked on a new course of training in readiness for the event.

"My hands get stiff,'' he explains, "because I will soon be 87. I have difficulty in doing octaves now. They're very important! My little fingers are the weakest so I work the one note, two octaves apart and hit out different rhythms very fast, then I do the same with the thumbs and then both hands, eventually using the whole weight of my arms.'' Mr. Dill gave his last, very well received, solo recital at City Hall five years ago, and chose a programme that included music by Chopin. Long recognised as one of Bermuda's leading musicians, who gave regular recitals, he has also worked, over many years, as musician and conductor with the popular `Harum Scarum' shows of the 1930s and '40s, as well as for the BMDS.

He especially recalls accompanying Helen Watlington, who had also studied in the US. "She had a lovely voice and we used to do some lovely concerts together at Trinity Hall, which they then turned over to the Telephone Company.'' When he was 53, Mr. Dill decided to marry Mary-Lilian, after meeting her during a weekend stay in Worcester, England. Since his wife's death shortly after his last concert, he has shared his home with his daughter, Susan and family. Dogs, cats and now, a grandchild, ensure that he is not lonely.

"Chopin is my favourite composer,'' he reflects, "The music sounds as perfect today as when he wrote it. Before him, every other master of the piano had used a much heavier style. His greatness was in the remarkable delicacy of his playing, his sleight of hand, which was very clever.'' Unlike most musicians, Laurence Dill did not begin piano lessons until he was a teenager, when he went to Madeleine Tucker of Flatts, for a weekly session at St. Andrew's Hall in Hamilton. "She was very encouraging and helped me very much indeed. At that time, I wasn't playing anything too adventurous -- stuff like Rachmaninoff.'' Staying at Saltus Grammar School until he was 17, Mr. Dill then went to a `cramming' school for Princeton University, in New Jersey. "But I really wanted to do music, and in the end I was accepted at the Juilliard Institute of Musical Art, which was then at Claremont Avenue in New York. The following year, the Juilliard School of Music, which was separate then, came and planted themselves on us. I was there for five years and was fortunate to study with a pupil of Leschetizky, who had been born, as far back as 1830 -- three years before Brahms!'' When he returned to Bermuda, he worked at the Bank of Butterfield, but gave fairly frequent concerts, one of them with Charles Pearman Wilson and Robin Tucker at the old Opera House. After accompanying a visiting artist who was connected with the Royal College of Music, it was suggested that his talent was such that he should go on to study there.

After an interview with Dr. Herbert Howells, he was accepted. "While I was there, I studied conducting with Willy Reed, who was a friend of Elgar's.'' Apart from music, the other love of Laurence Dill's life was flying -- "at least it was until I had to take my pilot's licence. I had done quite a lot of flying, but in order to get a licence you had to do what they called a `spin'.

They took me up 3,000 feet and then jack-knifed down. I was in agony -- my stomach couldn't take it. I loved flying until that moment!'' During the Second World War, Mr. Dill served with the Bermuda Volunteer Engineers at St. David's. He recalls an incident which, he says, never received any publicity: "The Orduna was coming out from England, packed with civilians and we could see it from the Battery, coming up the channel.

Suddenly I heard the command, `Prepare to fire'. There were these old guns up there and, to my astonishment, the next thing was that they fired this gun and the shot went right over the bow. Absolutely terrified everyone -- you could see the people on the ship putting their hands up! Apparently, they hadn't given the right signal, and Bermuda decided it had to be on the safe side.'' Shortly after that, he was snapped up by the British Navy to do cipher work, reaching the rank of 1st Lieutenant. That service took him all through the West Indies, including a year in St. Thomas until he was invalided out of the Navy in 1944.

Ever since, Mr. Dill has suffered bouts of neurasthenia, a debility of the nerves causing fatigue. Having lived through those eventful and often, sad years, he is vehemently against war: "Warfare is completely unnecessary and all built on deception,'' he declares.

Asked to sum up his life, he answers, "I could say `if only this, or if only that', but God has been good to me -- given me the rough with the smooth, but why not? You are given the rough bits to educate you -- then we really enjoy the smooth bits.'' He discloses that he has decided to buy a new piano. "It's going to be my last splurge!'' `An Evening of Music', presented by the Saltus Concert Society, takes place at Saltus Grammar School on Friday, November 17 at 8 p.m.

Included in the programme will be Saltus headmaster Mr. Trevor Rowell, making his musical debut here in an Italian Polka duet with the school's head of music, Mrs. Ruth Henderon.

Also on the bill is a set of Jack Tar Sea Shanties composed especially for the family brass group, known as The Furness Line. The quartet consists of Saltus brass instructor, Mr. Furness, his wife and two children.

Other musicians who will play music by Beethoven, Mendelssohn, Vivaldi and Rachmaninoff include representatives from three of the Island's music schools: Charles Li (violin), Ana Nunes Leite (piano), Susan Soehner (piano) and Susan LeVasseur (voice), all from the Dunbarton School of Music; Sally Dennis (clarinet) from the Bermuda Academy of Music, and Joan Stewart (violin) from the Bermuda Suzuki Academy. Also performing will be Saltus music teacher, Lisa Maule on the clarinet.

Tickets at $12 ($6 for seniors and students) are available from the Saltus School Office (tel. 292-6177), or at the door.

IS STILL MAKES PERFECT -- After almost a leftime spent at the piano, Mr.

Laurence Dill, who is seen here at his Devonshire home, still practises every day.