Nancy Weir, Eminent Australian Pianist

New Zealand Listener, Volume 31, Issue 797, 29 October 1954, Page 31

Nancy Weir, Eminent Australian Pianist

QNE of the foremost concert pianists tn Australia today is Nancy Weir, who will be visiting New Zealand for a few days next month. She will give four studio broadcasts from linked YC stations while she is here, the first at 7.30 p.m. on Sunday, November 7. The other three will be broadcast at the same time on November 10, 14 and 17. She had her first piano lessons at the age of 10 with Ada Freeman, and at 13 she made her début with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, playing Beethoyen’s C Minor Concerto. A year later she went to Europe, and Artur. Schnabel took her as one of his pupils. Later she won a News Chronicle scholar- | ship and entered the Royal Academy of Music in London, where she won the Challen Gold Medal. She studied with Harold Craxton and won the Carol Rowe scholarship, and in 1937 at the age of 21 she accepted a position at the Bangor University, Wales, where she did some ensemble and solo broadcasts. A recital in Wigmore Hall led to a tour of England and Scotland with Paul Robeson in 1938, and in 1939 she toured the British Isles and Ireland with Beniamino Gigli. During the war Nancy Weir’s excellent knowledge of German and great linguistic abilities led to her being sent to the Middle East on special war work by the British Government, and she remained in the services for six years. She had occasional opportunities to appear as a concert artist during the war-with the Palestine Orchestra, the Cairo Orchestra, and in Italy with the English conductor Myers Foggin. Since the war she has made many concert appearances in Australia. She has been described by Isabelle Moresby in Australia Makes Music as having a gift for composition, a remarkable memory, and a musical ear that picks up the finest shades of sound not apparent to the majority of people.