Adrienne Simpson

HOME

TheInfoList

Click Here for Items Related To - Adrienne Simpson

OR:

Adrienne Simpson on: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Amazon]

Adrienne Marie Chilton (; 26 November 1943 – 4 December 2010) was a New Zealand broadcaster, historian, musicologist and writer. Her works focused on biographies, cricket, music, popular culture and social commentary. She was a professor of general musicalship and musical history at the

Guildhall School of Music and Drama The Guildhall School of Music and Drama is a conservatoire and drama school located in the City of London, United Kingdom. Established in 1880, the school offers undergraduate and postgraduate training in all aspects of classical music and jazz ...

for 18 years. Simpson regularly broadcast for the

BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...

...

and Radio New Zealand and was a research fellow at both the National Library of New Zealand and her first alma mater, the

Victoria University of Wellington Victoria University of Wellington ( mi, Te Herenga Waka) is a university in Wellington, New Zealand. It was established in 1897 by Act of Parliament, and was a constituent college of the University of New Zealand. The university is well kno ...

Early life

Born in

Wellington Wellington ( mi, Te Whanganui-a-Tara or ) is the capital city of New Zealand. It is located at the south-western tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Remutaka Range. Wellington is the second-largest city in New Zealand by metr ...

, New Zealand on 26 November 1943, Simpson was brought up in an engineering family in Kelburn. She attended

Wellington Girls' College Wellington Girls' College was founded in 1883 in Wellington, New Zealand. At that time it was called Wellington Girls' High School. Wellington Girls' College is a year 9 to 13 state secondary school, located in Thorndon in central Wellington. H ...

, and graduated with a post-graduate Master of Arts degree in music history from the

in 1964. Simpson relocated to the United Kingdom in 1965 and graduated from King's College London with a Master of Music title under

Thurston Dart Robert Thurston ("Bob") Dart (3 September 1921 – 6 March 1971), was an English musicologist, conductor and keyboard player. Along with Nigel Fortune, Oliver Neighbour and Stanley Sadie he was one of Britain's leading musicologists of the post ...

in 1966. She received a grant from the

British Council The British Council is a British organisation specialising in international cultural and educational opportunities. It works in over 100 countries: promoting a wider knowledge of the United Kingdom and the English language (and the Welsh lan ...

to go Charles University in Prague and study Czech music.

Career

For 18 years, Simpson taught general musicalship and musical history at the

as a professor. She played the flute, the piano and recorder as she conducted research and did writing. Her research into lute music resulted in her becoming editor of the ''Lute Society Journal'' from 1971 to 1972 and she became interested in 19th-century Czech music upon developing a close association with

Gerald Abraham Gerald Ernest Heal Abraham, (9 March 1904 – 18 March 1988) was an English-Jewish musicologist, editor and music critic. He was particularly respected as an authority on Russian music. Early career and author Abraham was born at Newport, Isl ...

. Simpson frequently broadcast on the

...
and Radio New Zealand (RNZ); she presented programmes such as ''Composer of the Week'' and ''Pressing On'' as well as major series on Czech music and opera during a quarter-of-a-century stint on

RNZ Concert RNZ Concert ( mi, Te Reo Irirangi o Aotearoa Kōnohete) is a publicly funded non-commercial New Zealand FM fine music radio network. Radio New Zealand owns the network and operates it from its Wellington headquarters. The network's playlist o ...

. She presented a five-part hour-long programmes on the New Zealand Opera Company's history during the 1950s and the 1960s. Simpson went back to New Zealand in 1983. She was a research fellow of the National Library of New Zealand in 1991, and was a John David Stout research fellow at the Victoria University of Wellington in 1993. Her works were published in Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom, and freelanced from her home in suburban Wellington and later

Paraparaumu Paraparaumu () is a town in the south-western North Island of New Zealand. It lies on the Kapiti Coast, north of the nation's capital city, Wellington. Like other towns in the area, it has a partner settlement at the coast called Paraparaumu Bea ...

. Simpson's works focused on biographies, music, popular culture and social commentary. Her books include '' Easy Lute Musi'' in 1975 of which she was editor. She authored ''Opera in New Zealand'' in 1990; ''The Book of New Zealand Woman'' in 1991; both ''The New Grove Dictionary of Opera'' and ''The International Dictionary of Opera'' in 1992; and co-wrote the 1992 book ''Southern Voices: International Opera Singers of New Zealand'' with Peter Downes. She edited ''The Greatest Ornaments of Their Profession: The New Zealand Tours by the Simonsen Opera Companies, 1876–1889'' that was published in 1993. Simpson authored ''Women Together'' in 1993 and the chapter ''The Orchestral Recorder'' for ''Cambridge University Press's Companion to the Recorder'' two years later. She edited ''Classic Kiwi Sport: Cricket'' in 1996; co-authored ''Opera's Farthest Frontier: A History of Professional Opera in New Zealand'' with Geoffrey Newson that same year; ''The Oxford Companion to Australian Music'' in 1997; ''Alex Lindsay – the Man and his Orchestra'' with Newson the following year; and contributed to ''Sport, Society and Culture in New Zealand'' in 1999. In 2000, she wrote the book ''Capital Opera: Wellington's Opera Company, 1982–1999''. Simpson contributed to ''The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians'' in the same year; ''Alice May: Gilbert and Sullivan's First Prima Donna'' which was published as a commissioned work for American publishers in 2003; ''Hallelujahs and History: The Auckland Choral Society, 1855–2005'' in 2005 and ''The Centenary History of The Theatre Royal Christchurch'' in 2008. She was a contributor to '' The Dictionary of New Zealand Biography, Volumes 2–5'' that were edited by Claudia Orange, the ''Royal Musical Association Research Chronicle''; ''

The Musical Times ''The Musical Times'' is an academic journal of classical music edited and produced in the United Kingdom and currently the oldest such journal still being published in the country. It was originally created by Joseph Mainzer in 1842 as ''Mainzer ...

''; the ''Journal of the American Lute Society''; ''The Consort''; the ''Women's Studies Journal''; the '' New Zealand Journal of History'' and the ''Australasian Music Research'' journals. Between 1988 and 1990, Simpson was president of the New Zealand Opera Society, was founder-editor of Early Music New Zealand from 1985 to 1988, and was co-ordinator for the New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians in New Zealand. She volunteered at the New Zealand Cricket Museum at the

Basin Reserve The Basin Reserve (commonly known as "The Basin") is a cricket ground in Wellington, New Zealand. It has been used for Test matches, and is the main home ground for the Wellington Firebirds first-class team. The Basin Reserve is the only crick ...

and, before her death, was about to complete the book ''New Zealand's Wicket Women: A History of Women's Cricket in New Zealand'' that would be finished by her daughter and a fellow colleague of Simpson's.

Personal life

Simpson was married to Richard Chilton. She died in Wellington, New Zealand on 4 December 2010.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Simpson, Adrienne 1943 births 2010 deaths Writers from Wellington City People educated at Wellington Girls' College Victoria University of Wellington alumni Alumni of King's College London Charles University alumni 20th-century New Zealand women writers 21st-century New Zealand women writers 20th-century New Zealand historians 21st-century New Zealand historians Cricket historians and writers Music historians New Zealand musicologists Women musicologists Women writers about music Opera critics Academics of the Guildhall School of Music and Drama New Zealand expatriates in England New Zealand women historians New Zealand women radio presenters BBC radio presenters RNZ Concert