1960 Flagship

Can you tell us a bit about you, and what you are up to these days?

Not long after my last AYO season I graduated as an engineer and moved to Switzerland to work in my new profession. While tramping (summer) and skiing (winter) in the mountains as well as weekend trips away in my old VW beetle formed the basis of non-work pursuits, I did have my cello with me and got together occasionally with a German work colleague who played piano. After marriage to Irene, whom I had met at university in Melbourne, we returned to Australia to start a family, seek a home and as it turned out, remake a career far removed from engineering.

In 1968 I joined the Australian Trade Commissioner Service and commenced a fascinating gypsy life living overseas in different countries, working to develop markets for Australian businesses and cement sound trade relations in countries in Africa, South and North America, the Middle East and Europe. Like many amateur musicians, the pressures of work, family and regular moves resulted is little opportunity to play music with others.

After retirement I did decide to start playing again, so bought a new cello, found a teacher, and practised as hard as I had ever done! It was wonderful find an organisation, the Amateur Chamber Music Society which had been set up by some of the people I remembered from AYO and Music Camp days. ACMS provides a wonderful opportunity for players of all ages and abilities and now operates in a number of Australian cities. I was able to enjoy orchestral playing again with the North Sydney Symphony, Musicus Medicus (the NSW Doctors’ orchestra) and even with the Darwin Symphony Orchestra on one visit up north. Our daughter plays double bass with the DSO. With age and arthritis my enthusiasm for playing has now receded. But not my enthusiasm for attending performances and supporting organisations such as AYO. In recent years I have been spending time in the world of books and writing, editing and publishing works by my late mother-in-law Kathryn Purnell.

What was a highlight of your time in AYO programs?

The experience was wonderful: playing under icons of Australian music such as John Bishop, Sir Bernard Heinze and John Hopkins. And unlike today, we played with the cream of Australian soloists such as Stephen McIntyre and Charmian Gadd. We did play once with a young Daniel Barenboim, also a memorable experience.

What skills, musical and otherwise, did you take away from your time at AYO?

Working as a tutti player in an orchestra demands a number of skills: the discipline of preparing your part alone, working collaboratively with your sectional team and the fun orchestra. It builds listening skills and the ability to remember and follow instructions. All this develops the knowledge that cohesion brings strength. These skills were all of great benefit in my career as an Australian Trade Commissioner.

Why do you think AYO is important to the Australian cultural landscape?

It was always great to be part of an orchestra playing masterworks of the symphonic repertoire: Sibelius, Dvorak, Tchaikovsky. I recall we rarely played Australian music. We did play Margaret Sutherland’s Dithyramb in 1959 and it formed part of the first ever AYO LP recording.

How would you describe AYO in three words?

Excellence; intensity; inclusiveness.

Is there anything else you would like to tell us about you or your time at AYO?

I often mention that I was on the first ever AYO tour… That the tour was from Melbourne to Sydney, by train, with a change at Albury because the single gauge line had not yet been built, seems not to impress today’s young musicians, often recently returned from China or Europe! How times have changed.

Cello

AYO: 1958-1962
AYO National Music Camp: 1958-1959, 1961-1962

I have no doubt that attending my first National Music camp at age 14 was the catalyst which launched me on the path to a career as a cellist. Being lucky enough to attend a school where music was really important, (they even had a full symphony orchestra), I was taken aback to find dozens of like-minded teenagers at my first camp and realized that I was only on the bottom rung of the ladder!

Inspired by older role models, more advanced students and the many wonderful tutors I encountered at Camps, I went home determined to work harder. The next year I was selected for AYO, and this was the beginning of a long and successful career as an orchestral and chamber musician, at first in Australia and then in Europe. For ten years I toured with my husband, Bruce Lawrence (viola) with the Deltic Trio, as section leaders of several Chamber Orchestras in the U.K., and as the lower half of a string quartet.

Returning to Australia I taught at Sydney Conservatorium and pioneered string programs in schools, as well as maintaining a very busy private studio. I have produced many very successful students and have been proud to send many to National Music Camp and to AYO. Both my sons also took part in these programmes, Adrian as a cellist and Julian as a viola player.

I was for 40 years a String Examiner with the AMEB, and Chief Examiner of Strings in the Education Department of NSW for 30 of those years. I am passionate in my commitment to seeing as many children as possible awakened to the world of music in their formative years. I have especially devoted the latter part of my career to this end and can number many professional cellists among my former students both in Australia and in Europe.

In the 2018 Queen’s Birthday Honours List I am proud to have received the Medal of the Order of Australia for services to music education.