Rhondda Gillespie (4 August 194130 December 2010) was an Australian-born classical pianist who resided primarily in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the European mainland, continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

and

Barbados Barbados is an island country in the Lesser Antilles of the West Indies, in the Caribbean region of the Americas, and the most easterly of the Caribbean Islands. It occupies an area of and has a population of about 287,000 (2019 estimate) ...

. She was a specialist in the music of Franz Liszt and brought to light many of his lesser-known works. She was also renowned for her focus on contemporary music, and she gave many world premieres of British music.

Career

Rhondda Marie Gillespie was born in Sydney in 1941, the only child of architect David Gillespie and his wife Marie (nee Saywell). At age 8 she played

Manuel de Falla Manuel de Falla y Matheu (, 23 November 187614 November 1946) was an Andalusian Spanish composer and pianist. Along with Isaac Albéniz, Francisco Tárrega, and Enrique Granados, he was one of Spain's most important musicians of the first ...

's '' Ritual Fire Dance''"Concert pianist brought lesser-known Liszt pieces to life"
''Sydney Morning Herald'', 2 February 2011; retrieved 1 June 2013. on

Jack Davey John Andrew Davey (8 February 190714 October 1959), known as Jack Davey, was a New Zealand-born singer and pioneering star of Australian radio as a performer, producer, writer and host from the early 1930s into the late 1950s. Later in his caree ...

's radio show ''Star Search''. She gave her first public recital at 12. Her formal studies were at the

Sydney Conservatorium of Music The Sydney Conservatorium of Music (formerly the New South Wales State Conservatorium of Music and known by the moniker "The Con") is a heritage-listed music school in Macquarie Street, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. It is one of the old ...

under

Alexander Sverjensky Alexander Borisovich Sverjensky (Александр Борисович Сверженский) (26 March 1901 – 3 October 1971) was a Russian-born Australian pianist and teacher. Sverjensky was born in Riga, Latvia, then part of the Russian Emp ...

(where her fellow students included

Malcolm Williamson Malcolm Benjamin Graham Christopher Williamson, (21 November 19312 March 2003) was an Australian composer. He was the Master of the Queen's Music from 1975 until his death. Biography Williamson was born in Sydney in 1931; his father was an A ...

Richard Farrell Richard Farrell (30 December 1926 – 27 May 1958) was a New Zealand classical pianist. Musical career Early life Thomas Richard Farrell was born in Auckland in 1926 to Thomas and Ella Farrell, and spent most of his young years in Wellingto ...

and

Roger Woodward Roger Woodward (born 20 December 1942) is an Australian classical pianist, composer, conductor and teacher. Life and career Early life The youngest of four children, Roger Woodward was born in Sydney where he received first piano lessons ...

)Chandos
Retrieved 1 June 2013 and in Britain under

Louis Kentner Louis Philip Kentner (19 July 190523 September 1987) was a Hungarian, later British, pianist who excelled in the works of Chopin and Liszt, as well as the Hungarian repertoire. Life and career He was born Lajos Kentner in Karwin in Austrian S ...

and

Denis Matthews Denis Matthews (27 February 191925 December 1988) was an English pianist and musicologist whose performing career flourished after the war, during the 1950s and into the 1960s. He later turned increasingly to broadcasting, writing and teaching. ...

Wilfred Josephs Wilfred Josephs (24 July 1927 – 17 November 1997) was an English composer. Life Born in Gosforth, Newcastle upon Tyne, the fourth and youngest son of Russian and South Shields Jewish parents, Wilfred Josephs had his first musical studies in Ne ...

' 14 Studies for Piano, Op. 53 were written for Gillespie, Joy Blech, and

Yonty Solomon Jonathan "Yonty" Solomon (6 May 193726 September 2008) was a South African pianist. He played with many of the world's best-known orchestras. Biography Solomon was born in Cape Town, the youngest of seven children of a family from Lithuania. At ...

. Gillespie gave the world premiere of the complete set at the

Cheltenham Festival The Cheltenham Festival is a horse racing-based meeting in the National Hunt racing calendar in the United Kingdom, with race prize money second only to the Grand National. The four-day festival takes place annually in March at Cheltenham Ra ...

in 1967. She was the second wife of the music critic and musicologist Denby Richards. They married on 29 May 1973, but divorced in 1977. In 1976, for

Joseph Horovitz Joseph Horovitz (26 May 1926 – 9 February 2022) was an Austrian-born British composer and conductor best known for his 1970 pop cantata ''Captain Noah and his Floating Zoo'', which achieved widespread popularity in schools. Horovitz also compo ...

's 50th birthday, Gillespie played his ''Jazz Concerto'' at the Queen Elizabeth Hall. She played Franz Liszt's piano transcription of Hector Berlioz's '' Symphonie fantastique'' at the 1977 London Liszt Festival. With the actor

Michael Gough Francis Michael Gough ( ; 23 November 1916 – 17 March 2011) was a British character actor who made more than 150 film and television appearances. He is known for his roles in the Hammer Horror Films from 1958, with his first role as Sir Arthu ...

she also gave the first complete performance in London of Liszt's dramatic recitations. In 1984, Gillespie and her fellow Australian pianist Robert Weatherburn formed a professional duo to present repertoire for piano four-hands and two pianos. They toured Malta and England and appeared in Sydney. There they premiered

John Dankworth Sir John Phillip William Dankworth, CBE (20 September 1927 – 6 February 2010), also known as Johnny Dankworth, was an English jazz composer, saxophonist, clarinettist and writer of film scores. With his wife, jazz singer Dame Cleo Laine, he ...

's ''Fantasia Enigmatica'' in 1986. In 1987, at the Sydney Opera House, they gave the world premieres of Weatherburn's arrangement for two pianos of Liszt's ''Geharnischte Lied'' and of his own composition for two pianos, ''Mnajdra''. They gave the Southern Hemisphere premiere of Liszt's ''

Concerto pathétique The ''Concerto pathétique'' ( S.258/2), completed in 1866, is Franz Liszt's most substantial and ambitious two-piano work. At least three piano concerto arrangements of the work have been made by other composers, based on Liszt's suggestions. H ...

'' for 2 pianos. For

Malcolm Arnold Sir Malcolm Henry Arnold (21 October 1921 – 23 September 2006) was an English composer. His works feature music in many genres, including a cycle of nine symphonies, numerous concertos, concert works, chamber music, choral music and music ...

's 70th birthday they played his Concerto for Piano Four-hands and Strings, and for his 80th birthday the Concerto for Two Pianos and Orchestra.

Miriam Hyde Miriam Beatrice Hyde (15 January 191311 January 2005) was an Australian composer, classical pianist, music educator, and poet. She composed over 150 works for piano, 50 songs, other instrumental and orchestral works and performed as a concert ...

and other composers wrote works for Gillespie and Weatherburn.Robert Weatherburn website
retrieved 1 June 2013.

Death

Rhondda Gillespie ceased playing in the 1990s due to arthritis in her fingers. She had come to spend much of her time (including the English winters) in

, where she died on 30 December 2010, aged 69. Her former husband Denby Richards had died on 7 December.

Awards

She won the Harriet Cohen Commonwealth Medal in 1959.

Recordings

Rhondda Gillespie's recordings included: * the world premiere recordings of the piano sonatas by

Constant Lambert Leonard Constant Lambert (23 August 190521 August 1951) was a British composer, conductor, and author. He was the founder and music director of the Royal Ballet, and (alongside Ninette de Valois and Frederick Ashton) he was a major figure in th ...

(1974)Lisa Hardy, ''The British Piano Sonata 1870-1945''
Retrieved 1 June 2013 and Sir

Arthur Bliss Sir Arthur Edward Drummond Bliss (2 August 189127 March 1975) was an English composer and conductor. Bliss's musical training was cut short by the First World War, in which he served with distinction in the army. In the post-war years he qu ...

Usko Meriläinen Usko Aatos Meriläinen (January 27, 1930 – November 12, 2004) was a Finnish composer. He was born in Tampere. Usko Meriläinen studied orchestral conducting with Leo Funtek and composition with Aarre Merikanto at the Sibelius Academy. Meriläine ...

's First Piano Concerto ( Royal Philharmonic Orchestra under

Walter Susskind Jan Walter Susskind (1 May 1913 – 25 March 1980) was a Czech-born British conductor, teacher and pianist. He began his career in his native Prague, and fled to Britain when Germany invaded the city in 1939. He worked for substantial periods in ...

) * Franz Liszt's '' Weihnachtsbaum'', Sonata in B minor, ''Consolations'' and 2 Ballades * music by

Charles Camilleri Charles Camilleri (7 September 1931 – 3 January 2009) was a Maltese composer. Early life Camilleri was born in Ħamrun and, as a teenager, composed many works based on folk music and legends of his native Malta. Career Camilleri moved fro ...

Percy Grainger Percy Aldridge Grainger (born George Percy Grainger; 8 July 188220 February 1961) was an Australian-born composer, arranger and pianist who lived in the United States from 1914 and became an American citizen in 1918. In the course of a long an ...

and

Johann Sebastian Bach Johann Sebastian Bach (28 July 1750) was a German composer and musician of the late Baroque period. He is known for his orchestral music such as the '' Brandenburg Concertos''; instrumental compositions such as the Cello Suites; keyboard wo ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gillespie, Rhondda 1941 births 2010 deaths Australian classical pianists Australian women pianists Classical piano duos Sydney Conservatorium of Music alumni 20th-century classical pianists 20th-century Australian musicians Deaths in Barbados 20th-century Australian women 20th-century women pianists