Waldemar "Wally" Carl Seidel (11 March 189317 September 1980) was an Australian pianist, accompanist, and piano teacher who taught many notable pianists from Australia.

Biography

Seidel was born in

St Kilda, Victoria St Kilda is an inner seaside suburb in Melbourne, Victoria (Australia), Victoria, Australia, 6 km (4 miles) south-east of Melbourne's Melbourne City Centre, Central Business District, located within the City of Port Phillip Local governmen ...

in 1893, son of a German immigrant, the pianist and choral conductor Alfred Carl Seidel. Alfred had graduated from the Royal Conservatorium of Music, Leipzig, and migrated to Australia at the age of 19. Waldemar had lessons from his father, from J. Alfred Johnstone, from Benno Scherek, and from

Edward Goll Edward Goll (4 February 188411 January 1949) was a Bohemian pianist who settled in Australia in the 1910s and became a noted piano teacher at the Melbourne University Conservatorium of Music. His students included Margaret Sutherland, Waldemar Se ...

(a pupil of

Emil von Sauer Emil Georg Conrad von Sauer (8 October 186227 April 1942) was a German composer, pianist, score editor, and music (piano) teacher. He was a pupil of Franz Liszt and one of the most distinguished pianists of his generation. Josef Hofmann called vo ...

, who was in turn a pupil of

Franz Liszt Franz Liszt, in modern usage ''Liszt Ferenc'' . Liszt's Hungarian passport spelled his given name as "Ferencz". An orthographic reform of the Hungarian language in 1922 (which was 36 years after Liszt's death) changed the letter "cz" to simpl ...

; Goll's other students included

Margaret Sutherland Margaret Ada Sutherland (20 November 189712 August 1984) was an Australian composer, among the best-known female musicians her country has produced. Career Margaret Sutherland's father was George Sutherland, a journalist and writer and membe ...

and Linda Phillips). Seidel assumed all of Johnstone's pupils when he returned to England in 1924.Australian Dictionary of Biography
/ref> As an accompanist he worked with notable singers such as Amy Castles and

Stella Power Tertia Stella Power (27 June 1896 – 16 January 1977) was an Australian coloratura soprano, a protégée of Nellie Melba. She has been referred to as the "Little Melba". Early life and education Power was born in Camperdown, Victoria, to cus ...

. In 1925 he joined the staff of the Albert Street Conservatorium, East Melbourne, and in 1931

Bernard Heinze Sir Bernard Thomas Heinze, AC (1 July 189410 June 1982) was an Australian conductor, academic, and Director of the New South Wales State Conservatorium of Music. He conducted all the orchestras run by the ABC, most particularly the Melbourne Sym ...

appointed him to the staff of the University of Melbourne Conservatorium, where he taught for the next 43 years, retiring in 1974. He continued to teach privately in retirement. His students included Don Banks,

Douglas Gamley John Douglas Gamley (13 September 19245 February 1998), generally known as Douglas Gamley, was an Australian composer, who worked on orchestral arrangements and on local, British and American films. Biography John Douglas Gamley was born on 1 ...

, Peggy Glanville-Hicks,

Noel Mewton-Wood Noel Mewton-Wood (20 November 19225 December 1953) was an Australian-born concert pianist who achieved international fame on the basis of many distinguished concerto recordings during his short life. Life and career Born in Melbourne, he studied ...

, Glen Carter-Varney, Phyllis Batchelor, May Clifford, Bernice Lehmann and Margaret Schofield. In 1962 he auditioned the seven-year-old

Geoffrey Tozer Geoffrey Peter Bede Hawkshaw Tozer (5 November 195421 August 2009) was an Australian classical pianist and composer. A child prodigy, he composed an opera at the age of eight and became the youngest recipient of a Churchill Fellowship award at 13 ...

, declaring that Noel Mewton-Wood (who had died in 1953, the year before Tozer was born) had "come back".The Age, 17 February 2004
/ref> Seidel also taught many blind pianists, and passed on his skill to others. He died in 1980, aged 87, survived by his wife and two sons.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Seidel, Waldemar 1893 births 1980 deaths Australian classical pianists Male classical pianists Classical accompanists Australian accompanists Australian music educators Piano pedagogues Australian people of German descent Musicians from Melbourne Academic staff of the University of Melbourne 20th-century classical pianists 20th-century Australian musicians 20th-century Australian male musicians