This bronze sculpture on a greenstone pedestal by New Zealand artist Jean Lennie (Blennerhassett) shows the noted musician H. Temple White in a pose familiar to generations of concert-goers, especially in Wellington. Temple White was City Organist at the Town Hall from 1961 to 1966.

As organist and choir master at Wesley Church in Taranaki Street from1913 onwards, he built up an excellent choir. He also conducted the Wellington Harmonic Society, which he had established in 1914, for 43 years and from 1919 to 1927 directed the Choral Union.

The high standards of his greatly acclaimed Apollo Singers impressed the famous composer Percy Grainger following a concert with them on 23 November 1935: “I don’t know that I can recall any choral program of my works, in any city of the world, in which every item was rendered with the unvarying perfection attained... H. Temple White carries within him the accumulated skill, tradition, experience and insight of 700 years of British leadership in music.”