Emily Mair

Emily Jean Mair (16 May 1928 – 15 May 2021) was a Scottish-born New Zealand opera singer, pianist and vocal coach. She trained a number of well-known New Zealand opera singers, including Simon O'Neill and Aivale Cole.

Early life Mair was raised in Newmilns, Ayrshire where her father ran a lace-making factory. At age 15 she went to the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama in Glasgow, later moving to the Royal College of Music in London where she studied piano with Arthur Benjamin and Antony Hopkins. In her third year she joined the opera school.

Career Mair sang in the BBC Chorus for three years. This was followed in 1961 and 1962 by singing Gianetta in Donezetti's L'Elisir d'amore.

In 1960 she moved to Liverpool where her husband Wilfred Simenauer took up the position of principal cello in the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra. In Liverpool she entered a competition to be one of the 'Five New Discoveries' with the Liverpool Philharmonic and performed as Zerlina in Don Giovanni with the Liverpool Mozart Orchestra.

She emigrated to New Zealand in 1965 as Wilfred had been appointed principal cello with the NZBC Symphony Orchestra (now the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra).

In 1987 she joined the staff of Victoria University of Wellington as a voice coach, receiving a Teaching Excellence Award in 1996. Robert Wiremu and Aivale Cole.

Awards and honours In the 2000 New Year Honours, Mair was appointed an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit, for services to music and singing.

Personal life She married Wilfred Simenauer, a New Zealand cellist, in England in 1951. They had three sons. She died in Wellington on 15 May 2021, one day before her 93rd birthday.