Dame Fanny Waterman (22 March 192020 December 2020) was a British pianist and academic piano teacher, who is particularly known as the founder, chair and artistic director of the Leeds International Piano Competition. She was also president of the Harrogate International Music Festival.

Early life, education and career as pianist

Waterman was born in Leeds to Mary (née Behrmann) and Myer Waterman (né Wasserman), a Russian Jew who had emigrated to England to work as a jeweller. She attended

Allerton High School Allerton High School is a coeducational secondary school and sixth form located in Alwoodley, Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. It is situated around 500 metres north of the A6120 Leeds Outer Ring Road, north of the Moor Allerton shopping centre ...

and began to study with Tobias Matthay. She won a scholarship to the

Royal College of Music The Royal College of Music is a conservatoire established by royal charter in 1882, located in South Kensington, London, UK. It offers training from the undergraduate to the doctoral level in all aspects of Western Music including perform ...

where she studied with

Cyril Smith Sir Cyril Richard Smith (28 June 1928 – 3 September 2010) was a prominent British politician who after his death was revealed to have been a prolific serial sex offender against children. A member of the Liberal Party, he was Member of ...

. She started giving public performances, and in 1941 opened the concert season in

Leeds Leeds () is a city and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds district in West Yorkshire, England. It is built around the River Aire and is in the eastern foothills of the Pennines. It is also the third-largest settlement (by popul ...

with the Leeds Symphony Society. The following year, she appeared at The Proms as one of the soloists playing the Bach Concerto for three harpsichords in C major (BWV 1064), conducted by Sir Adrian Boult, but her concert career was disrupted by the Second World War. She played duos with the violinist Erich Gruenberg.

Leeds International Piano Competition

By the early 1960s, Waterman felt that young British pianists needed a goal to give them a competitive edge over overseas pianists. In 1961, jointly with her pianist friend Marion, Countess of Harewood (later Marion Thorpe), and Roslyn Lyons, she founded the Leeds International Piano Competition. She was artistic director of the competition and, from 1981, chair of the competition jury, holding the posts until 2015. Finalists of the competition who began an international career based on it include Radu Lupu,

Murray Perahia Murray David Perahia () (born April 19, 1947) is an American pianist and conductor. He is widely considered one of the greatest living pianists. He was the first North American pianist to win the Leeds International Piano Competition, in 1972. Kn ...

, Sunwook Kim, Federico Colli,

Eric Lu Eric Lu (born December 15, 1997) is an American classical pianist. Hailed by '' The Guardian'' as a pianist with "the magic touch of... Murray Perahia and Radu Lupu", he won the gold medal at the Leeds International Piano Competition in 2018 at ag ...

András Schiff Sir András Schiff (; born 21 December 1953) is a Hungarian-born British classical pianist and conductor, who has received numerous major awards and honours, including the Grammy Award, Gramophone Award, Mozart Medal, and Royal Academy of Mus ...

, Mitsuko Uchida, Lars Vogt and

Denis Kozhukhin Denis Kozhukhin (born in Nizhny Novgorod, 1986) is a Russian pianist who was awarded third prize in the 2006 Leeds International Piano Competition. He was also awarded first prize in the 2010 Belgian Queen Elisabeth Competition for piano. Record ...

. She was a jury member for other international piano competitions, including the Tchaikovsky, Chopin, the

Horowitz Horowitz ( he, הוֹרוֹביץ, yi, האָראָװיץ) is a Levitical Ashkenazi surname deriving from the Horowitz family, though it can also be a non Jewish surname as well. The name is derived from the town of Hořovice, Bohemia. Other v ...

and the Paloma O'Shea International Piano Competition.

Teaching, writing and societies

Waterman's notable students include Paul Crossley, Jonathan Dunsby,

Benjamin Frith Benjamin Frith is a British classical pianist. He was born in South Yorkshire, England, on 11 October 1957. He began taking piano lessons with Fanny Waterman at age ten. He was encouraged by Waterman to pursue a career after winning the Dudley N ...

, Michael Roll and Allan Schiller; Roll won the inaugural Leeds competition and her students were also successful in other international competitions. She held strong views on piano pedagogy in the UK, blaming electronic keyboards, interruptive mobile phones and insufficient discipline for what she perceived as the country's weakness in generating top-class performers. She published a number of piano instruction books. This included the 30-volume ''Me and My Piano'' series, which was co-authored with Thorpe, and sold more than 2 million copies worldwide. She co-wrote ''Piano Competition: The Story of the Leeds'' with Wendy Thompson (1990). Her autobiography, ''My Life in Music'', was published in 2015. She was Director of the Postgraduate Certificate in Advanced Piano Performance at Leeds College of Music until 2006, and a patron of The Purcell School for Young Musicians. She served as honorary vice-president of the British Society of Women Musicians and honorary president of the

Harrogate International Festivals Harrogate International Festivals (HIF) is a registered charity and one of the UK's longest running arts festivals, having been established in 1966. Based in Harrogate, North Yorkshire. Festivals include the Harrogate Music Festival, Theakston O ...

from 2009.

Personal life

In 1944, she married Geoffrey de Keyser, a doctor, and in 1950, with the arrival of her first child, gave up her concert career and concentrated on teaching. They had two sons; Paul de Keyser became a musician and music author. Geoffrey de Keyser died in 2001. She was a guest for BBC Radio Four's '' Desert Island Discs'' in July 2010. Although then aged 90, she was still teaching masterclasses and continued to be involved with every detail of the Leeds competition. "They call me Field Marshal Fanny" she said, "I am a busy breeches." She donated her papers and memorabilia to the library of the

University of Leeds , mottoeng = And knowledge will be increased , established = 1831 – Leeds School of Medicine1874 – Yorkshire College of Science1884 - Yorkshire College1887 – affiliated to the federal Victoria University1904 – University of Leeds , ...

in November 2017. Waterman turned 100 on 22 March 2020. She died at a care home in Ilkley on 20 December 2020.

Honours and awards

Waterman was appointed OBE in 1971, CBE in 2001 and DBE in the 2005 New Year Honours. She was also awarded the degree of Doctor of Music (DMus) honoris causa by the

in 1992, and also received honorary degrees from Leeds Metropolitan University and the University of York. Her contribution to the city of Leeds was further recognised in April 2006, when she was given the Freedom of the City.

References

External links

Faber MusicLeeds Piano Competition
timeline with photographs * {{DEFAULTSORT:Waterman, Fanny 1920 births 2020 deaths English classical pianists English women pianists Jewish classical musicians 21st-century classical pianists 21st-century English women musicians Musicians from Leeds British music educators Women music educators Piano pedagogues People educated at Allerton High School Alumni of the Royal College of Music Academics of Leeds College of Music English Jews Dames Commander of the Order of the British Empire Musicians awarded knighthoods English centenarians Women centenarians English people of Russian-Jewish descent 21st-century women pianists