Daisy Fowler Kennedy (16 January 1893 – 30 July 1981) was an

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

n-born concert

violin The violin, sometimes referred to as a fiddle, is a wooden chordophone, and is the smallest, and thus highest-pitched instrument (soprano) in regular use in the violin family. Smaller violin-type instruments exist, including the violino picc ...

ist. She was born in Burra-Burra, 160 km north of

Adelaide Adelaide ( , ; ) is the list of Australian capital cities, capital and most populous city of South Australia, as well as the list of cities in Australia by population, fifth-most populous city in Australia. The name "Adelaide" may refer to ei ...

, to parents of Scottish and Irish descent.A. Eaglefield-Hull (Ed.), ''A Dictionary of Modern Music and Musicians'' (Dent, London & Toronto 1924), 267. Her father, Joseph A. Kennedy, was headmaster of Glenelg Primary School and president of the South Australian Public School Teachers' Union. For three years, she was Elder scholar at the Adelaide Conservatory under Mrs. Alderman and

Hermann Heinicke August Moritz Hermann Heinicke (21 July 1863 – 11 July 1949), only ever known as Hermann or Herr Heinicke, was a German-born violinist and music teacher in South Australia. He founded Heinicke's Grand Orchestra and was the first conductor of t ...

. She was a private pupil of

Otakar Ševčík Otakar Ševčík (22 March 185218 January 1934) was a Czechs, Czech violinist and influential teacher. He was known as a Solo (music), soloist and an Musical ensemble, ensemble player, including his occasional performances with Eugène Ysaÿe. ...

in Vienna for a year, and then studied for two years in the Meister-Schule there. She appeared in London in 1911 and toured widely in Europe and in the United States, Australia and New Zealand. On 15 April 1914, she married the Russian pianist

Benno Moiseiwitsch Benno Moiseiwitsch (22 February 18909 April 1963) was a Russian and British pianist. Biography Moiseiwitsch was born to Jewish parents in Odessa, Kherson Governorate, Russian Empire, and began his studies at age seven with Dmitry Klimov at t ...

; their daughter, the theatre designer

Tanya Moiseiwitsch Tatiana Benita Moiseiwitsch (3 December 1914 – 19 February 2003) was an English theatre designer. Born in London, the daughter of Daisy Kennedy, an Australian concert violinist and Benno Moiseiwitsch, a Russian/Ukrainian-born classical ...

, was born in December the same year. They had a second daughter, Sandra. After divorcing Moiseiwitsch, she married the English playwright and poet John Drinkwater in December 1924. They had a daughter, Penny Drinkwater, who went on to become a wine writer and member of the circle of wine writers. On 24 August 1927 a Proms performance of Brahms' Violin Concerto ground to a halt in the first movement. Kennedy apparently blamed a lack of rehearsal time, but the ''Times'' said that she suffered "a lapse of memory...which had the effect of making her play all the better when she recovered her nerve". "Of her sex - the foremost living violinist" - London Morning Post She was a cousin of cellist Lauri Kennedy,Peter Campbell
'Kennedy, Irvine Robert Laurie (Lauri) (1896–1980)'
Australian Dictionary of Biography, Volume 17, Melbourne University Press, pp 617-618. and thus also related to Lauri's son

John Kennedy John Fitzgerald Kennedy (May 29, 1917 – November 22, 1963), also known as JFK, was the 35th president of the United States, serving from 1961 until his assassination in 1963. He was the first Roman Catholic and youngest person elected p ...

, another cellist, and grandson, the violinist

Nigel Kennedy Nigel Kennedy (born 28 December 1956) is an English violinist and viola, violist. His early career was primarily spent performing classical music, and has since expanded into jazz music, jazz, klezmer, and other music genres. Early life and ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kennedy, Daisy 1893 births 1981 deaths 20th-century Australian classical violinists 20th-century Australian women musicians People from Burra, South Australia Australian women classical violinists Australian emigrants to England Australian expatriates in England