__NOTOC__ Elsie Maude Stanley Hall (22 June 1877 – 27 June 1976), commonly referred to as Elsie Stanley Hall, was an Australian-born South African classical pianist. As a child prodigy performing in Europe she was dubbed "the Antipodean Phenomenon".

Child prodigy and education

Hall was born in

Toowoomba Toowoomba ( ), nicknamed 'The Garden City' and 'T-Bar', is a city on the border of South East Queensland and Darling Downs regions of Queensland, Australia. It is located west of Queensland's capital, Brisbane. The urban population of Toowoom ...

, Queensland, Australia, the oldest daughter of William Stanley Hall (c.1845 – 19 June 1927), founding editor of the ''

Fiji Times ''The Fiji Times'' is a daily English-language newspaper published in Suva, Fiji. Established in Levuka on 4 September 1869 by George Littleton Griffiths, it is Fiji's oldest newspaper still operating. ''The Fiji Times'' is owned by Motibhai Gr ...

'' and later on the literary staff of the ''

Sydney Morning Herald ''The Sydney Morning Herald'' (''SMH'') is a daily tabloid newspaper published in Sydney, Australia, and owned by Nine Entertainment. Founded in 1831 as the ''Sydney Herald'', the ''Herald'' is the oldest continuously published newspaper in ...

'', and his wife Mary Ann, née Sadgrove, a piano teacher. The name "Stanley" was carried in recognition of his mother's family. She was a sister of Rev. Jacob Stanley, president of the British Wesleyan Methodist Conference, and Sarah Chalkey Stanley, who married George Pearce Baldwin. A child prodigy, Elsie Hall first took up the piano at three years old, studying from the age of five with Professor Josef Kretchmann (1838-1918) in Sydney. In 1883, she attended the Intercolonial Juvenile Industrial Exhibition in Parramatta, New South Wales, and won a prize for her piano performance. In 1888, she was enrolled at the

Stuttgart Conservatory The State University of Music and Performing Arts Stuttgart is a professional school for musicians and performing artists in Stuttgart, Germany. Founded in 1857, it is one of the oldest schools of its kind in Germany. It is one of the oldest and ...

in Germany. After a time in Paris, she made her London (

Steinway Hall Steinway Hall (German: ) is the name of buildings housing concert halls, showrooms and sales departments for Steinway & Sons pianos. The first Steinway Hall was opened in 1866 in New York City. Today, Steinway Halls and are located in cities suc ...

) debut on 5 May 1890 at the age of 12, where she was reviewed by

George Bernard Shaw George Bernard Shaw (26 July 1856 – 2 November 1950), known at his insistence as Bernard Shaw, was an Irish playwright, critic, polemicist and political activist. His influence on Western theatre, culture and politics extended from the 188 ...

. The same year she was awarded a pianoforte scholarship at the

Royal College of Music The Royal College of Music (RCM) 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 pe ...

, but declined and instead studied at Harrow Music School under John Farmer, and then at the Royal High School for Music in Berlin, where she studied with

Ernst Rudorff Ernst Friedrich Karl Rudorff (January 18, 1840 – December 31, 1916) was a German composer and music teacher, also a founder of the nature protection movement ''"Heimatschutz"''. Biography Born in Berlin, Rudorff studied piano under Woldemar Ba ...

, met

Brahms Johannes Brahms (; ; 7 May 1833 – 3 April 1897) was a German composer, virtuoso pianist, and conductor of the mid- Romantic period. His music is noted for its rhythmic vitality and freer treatment of dissonance, often set within studied ye ...

Clara Schumann Clara Josephine Schumann (; ; née Wieck; 13 September 1819 – 20 May 1896) was a German pianist, composer, and piano teacher. Regarded as one of the most distinguished pianists of the Romantic music, Romantic era, she exerted her influence o ...

and

Joachim Joachim was, according to Sacred tradition, the husband of Saint Anne, the father of Mary, mother of Jesus, Mary (mother of Jesus), and the maternal grandfather of Jesus. The story of Joachim and Anne first appears in the Gospel of James, part of ...

, and won the Mendelssohn Prize. Her patron there was Marie Benecke, eldest daughter of

Felix Mendelssohn Jakob Ludwig Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy (3 February 18094 November 1847), widely known as Felix Mendelssohn, was a German composer, pianist, organist and conductor of the early Romantic music, Romantic period. Mendelssohn's compositions inc ...

. She went home to Australia for a few years before returning to London in 1903 to resume her concert career.

Maturity

Hall was a close friend of the Lambert family and gave piano lessons to the young

Constant Lambert Leonard Constant Lambert (23 August 190521 August 1951) was a British composer, conductor, and author. He was the founding music director of the Royal Ballet, and (alongside Dame Ninette de Valois and Sir Frederick Ashton) he was a major figu ...

and his older brother

Maurice Maurice may refer to: *Maurice (name), a given name and surname, including a list of people with the name Places * or Mauritius, an island country in the Indian Ocean *Maurice, Iowa, a city *Maurice, Louisiana, a village *Maurice River, a trib ...

. In 1911 she also taught the 14 year-old Princess Mary at

Marlborough House Marlborough House, a Grade I listed mansion on The Mall in St James's, City of Westminster, London, is the headquarters of the Commonwealth of Nations and the seat of the Commonwealth Secretariat. It is adjacent to St James's Palace. The ...

. Hall also played a Beethoven Concerto at the Malvern Festival with

Elgar Sir Edward William Elgar, 1st Baronet, (; 2 June 1857 – 23 February 1934) was an English composer, many of whose works have entered the British and international classical concert repertoire. Among his best-known compositions are orchestr ...

conducting.'Elsie Hall', in ''The Times'', 28 July 1976, p. 16 She married South African scientist Dr. Frederick Otto Stohr, originally Stöhr (1871–1946), in London on 22 November 1913. He had been conducting

ornithological Ornithology, from Ancient Greek ὄρνις (''órnis''), meaning "bird", and -logy from λόγος (''lógos''), meaning "study", is a branch of zoology dedicated to the study of birds. Several aspects of ornithology differ from related discip ...

research in Northern Rhodesia (modern

Zambia Zambia, officially the Republic of Zambia, is a landlocked country at the crossroads of Central Africa, Central, Southern Africa, Southern and East Africa. It is typically referred to being in South-Central Africa or Southern Africa. It is bor ...

); they settled in South Africa, where he later practised medicine. When her father retired he moved to South Africa to live with his daughter and son-in-law. Hall spent many years in South Africa but continued to perform internationally. She appeared at the

Proms The BBC Proms is an eight-week summer season of daily orchestral classical music concerts and other events held annually, predominantly in the Royal Albert Hall in central London. Robert Newman founded The Proms in 1895. Since 1927, the ...

under

Henry Wood Sir Henry Joseph Wood (3 March 186919 August 1944) was an English conductor best known for his association with London's annual series of promenade concerts, known as the Proms. He conducted them for nearly half a century, introducing hundr ...

in 1929, and in 1935 she toured Australia, giving two Bach recitals in Sydney and playing the Schumann Concerto with the Sydney State Orchestra. During the war, although by then in her 60s, she entertained Allied troops in North Africa and Italy. One of her two sons was killed while on active service in the South African Air Force. She continued to perform professionally on the piano well into her senior years. In 1958 (at age 80), she made a well-received tour of South Africa with Dutch violinist Herman Salomon, who had previously gained his reputation as leader of The Amsterdam String Quartet. In 1967 she recorded a 90th anniversary concert recital. She appeared as a castaway on the

BBC Radio BBC Radio is an operational business division and service of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) which has operated in the United Kingdom under the terms of a royal charter since 1927. The service provides national radio stations cove ...

programme ''

Desert Island Discs ''Desert Island Discs'' is a radio programme broadcast on BBC Radio 4. It was first broadcast on the BBC Forces Programme on 29 January 1942. Each week a guest, called a " castaway" during the programme, is asked to choose eight audio recordin ...

'' on 28 April 1969. That year she also published her autobiography, ''The Good Die Young''. Hall died, aged 99, at Wynberg, South Africa, and was buried at

Hout Bay Hout Bay (, meaning "Wood Bay") is a seaside suburb of Cape Town in the Western Cape province of South Africa. It is situated in a valley on the Atlantic seaboard of the Cape Peninsula, twenty kilometres south of the Central business district of ...

Cemetery.

References

External links

YouTube 'Chabrier's Valse Romantique No. 3 played by Elsie Hall & Leslie Heward'

Dr Elsie Hall - Roots Vinyl Guide
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hall, Elsie 1877 births 1976 deaths Australian classical pianists Child classical musicians Australian women classical pianists Australian expatriates in Germany Australian expatriates in England Berlin University of the Arts alumni Musicians from Queensland South African classical pianists South African women classical pianists People from Toowoomba State University of Music and Performing Arts Stuttgart alumni 20th-century Australian women Australian emigrants to South Africa