Valda Rose Aveling OBE (16 May 192021 November 2007) was an Australian

pianist A pianist ( , ) is an individual musician who plays the piano. Since most forms of Western music can make use of the piano, pianists have a wide repertoire and a wide variety of styles to choose from, among them traditional classical music, ja ...

, harpsichordist and

clavichord The clavichord is a stringed rectangular keyboard instrument that was used largely in the Late Middle Ages, through the Renaissance, Baroque and Classical eras. Historically, it was mostly used as a practice instrument and as an aid to compositi ...

ist. Her repertoire was very wide, including composers as diverse as

William Byrd William Byrd (; 4 July 1623) was an English composer of late Renaissance music. Considered among the greatest composers of the Renaissance, he had a profound influence on composers both from his native England and those on the continent. He ...

, Jan Sweelinck, Sergei Rachmaninoff and Béla Bartók. Valda Aveling was born in Sydney, the youngest of four girls and a boy, and showed great talent at an early age. At 16 she received teaching and performing diplomas from the NSW Conservatorium of Music, and performed in the Sydney Eisteddfod in 1935 where she won the Sydney

Eisteddfod In Welsh culture, an ''eisteddfod'' is an institution and festival with several ranked competitions, including in poetry and music. The term ''eisteddfod'', which is formed from the Welsh morphemes: , meaning 'sit', and , meaning 'be', means, ac ...

Australian Women's Weekly ''The Australian Women's Weekly'', sometimes known as simply ''The Weekly'', is an Australian monthly women's magazine published by Mercury Capital in Sydney. For many years it was the number one magazine in Australia before being outsold by th ...

'' 100-pound pianoforte

scholarship A scholarship is a form of financial aid awarded to students for further education. Generally, scholarships are awarded based on a set of criteria such as academic merit, diversity and inclusion, athletic skill, and financial need. Scholars ...

for the most talented juvenile pianist. She then left for Britain to study harpsichord and

with

Violet Gordon-Woodhouse Violet Gordon-Woodhouse (23 April 18729 January 1948) was a British keyboard player. She specialised in the harpsichord and clavichord, and was influential in bringing both instruments back into fashion. She was the first person to record the ha ...

. She returned in 1938 to make her piano debut under

Malcolm Sargent Sir Harold Malcolm Watts Sargent (29 April 1895 – 3 October 1967) was an English conductor, organist and composer widely regarded as Britain's leading conductor of choral works. The musical ensembles with which he was associated include ...

, at the

Sydney Town Hall The Sydney Town Hall is a late 19th-century heritage-listed town hall building in the city of Sydney, the capital city of New South Wales, Australia, housing the chambers of the Lord Mayor of Sydney, council offices, and venues for meetings an ...

. In one concert in

Manila Manila ( , ; fil, Maynila, ), officially the City of Manila ( fil, Lungsod ng Maynila, ), is the capital of the Philippines, and its second-most populous city. It is highly urbanized and, as of 2019, was the world's most densely populate ...

, she played Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto No. 1, Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto No. 2 and Beethoven's ''Emperor'' Concerto. She later came to dislike Beethoven's music, saying there was "nothing light in it". In 1947 she toured Australia for the

Australian Broadcasting Commission The Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) is the national broadcaster of Australia. It is principally funded by direct grants from the Australian Government and is administered by a government-appointed board. The ABC is a publicly-owned ...

but returned to Britain by the early 1950s. For the next 30 years she appeared at major British festivals such as the Proms, and throughout the Far East, Europe, and North America. She was active as a harpsichordist before the emergence of the early music movement and commissioned works for the instrument from living composers. She was the first to give amplified recitals on the clavichord. She taught at Trinity College of Music, London, and made numerous recordings. Among her notable pupils was pianist Howard Brown. Among the artists with whom she collaborated were

Benjamin Britten Edward Benjamin Britten, Baron Britten (22 November 1913 – 4 December 1976, aged 63) was an English composer, conductor, and pianist. He was a central figure of 20th-century British music, with a range of works including opera, other ...

, Dame Joan Sutherland, Richard Bonynge, Evelyn Rothwell, Luciano Pavarotti,

Leontyne Price Mary Violet Leontyne Price (born February 10, 1927) is an American soprano who was the first African American soprano to receive international acclaim. From 1961 she began a long association with the Metropolitan Opera, where she was the first Af ...

, Dame Kiri Te Kanawa and Renata Tebaldi. She played Bach concertos for two, three or four keyboards, with players such as George Malcolm,

Simon Preston Simon John Preston (4 August 1938 – 13 May 2022) was an English organist, conductor, and composer.
...

Eileen Joyce Eileen Alannah Joyce CMG (died 25 March 1991) was an Australian pianist whose career spanned more than 30 years. She lived in England in her adult years. Her recordings made her popular in the 1930s and 1940s, particularly during World War I ...

and Geoffrey Parsons, and conductors such as

Yehudi Menuhin Yehudi or Jehudi (Hebrew: יהודי, endonym for Jew) is a common Hebrew name: * Yehudi Menuhin (1916–1999), violinist and conductor ** Yehudi Menuhin School, a music school in Surrey, England ** Who's Yehoodi?, a catchphrase referring to t ...

. She gave a number of premieres, such as new works by

Stephen Dodgson Stephen Cuthbert Vivian Dodgson (17 March 192413 April 2013) was a British composer and broadcaster. Dodgson's prolific musical output covered most genres, ranging from opera and large-scale orchestral music to chamber and instrumental music, as ...

and Dame

Elizabeth Maconchy Dame Elizabeth Violet Maconchy LeFanu (; 19 March 1907 – 11 November 1994) was an Irish-English composer. She is considered to be one of the finest composers Great Britain and Ireland have produced. Biography Elizabeth Violet Maconchy was b ...

. In 1982, she was appointed an Officer of the

Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established o ...

(OBE). Valda Aveling never married. She lived the last ten years of her life being cared for by friends and tending her garden, which contained a large

eucalyptus ''Eucalyptus'' () is a genus of over seven hundred species of flowering trees, shrubs or mallees in the myrtle family, Myrtaceae. Along with several other genera in the tribe Eucalypteae, including '' Corymbia'', they are commonly known as e ...

tree imported from Australia. She died at the age of 87.

References

Sources

*Obituary, ''

The Age ''The Age'' is a daily newspaper in Melbourne, Australia, that has been published since 1854. Owned and published by Nine Entertainment, ''The Age'' primarily serves Victoria, but copies also sell in Tasmania, the Australian Capital Territory ...

'', 27 December 2007, p. 18 {{DEFAULTSORT:Aveling, Valda 1920 births 2007 deaths Australian classical pianists Australian women pianists Australian harpsichordists British harpsichordists Clavichordists Sydney Conservatorium of Music alumni Australian Officers of the Order of the British Empire 20th-century classical pianists 20th-century Australian musicians 20th-century British musicians Women harpsichordists 20th-century Australian women 20th-century women pianists