Janetta McStay

Janetta Mary McStay (20 May 1917 – 14 June 2012) was a New Zealand concert pianist and music professor who performed with the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra and other orchestras, as a solo artist and as an accompanist and chamber music associate with leading artists from around the world.

Early life and education McStay was born on 20 May 1917 in Roxburgh, New Zealand. She had Scottish and Irish heritage and grew up in Invercargill in a musical family of six children. Her mother, Mary (née Auld) enjoyed singing Scottish songs. Her father, Hugh William McStay, had no formal musical education but great natural talent that enabled him to play almost any instrument. He died when she was 14.

McStay attended Southland Girls' High School. and the highest marks in the South Island for her licentiate exam. While still at school, she played in country concerts for local farming communities and in a school orchestra led by Alex Lindsay, later a highly acclaimed professional musician himself. the Walter Macfarren gold medal, and the Janet Duff Greet Prize for a performance of contemporary music. She also played in numerous broadcasts for the BBC. and began a series of nationwide tours for the New Zealand Chamber Music Federation (now Chamber Music New Zealand) and the Community Arts Service, playing in venues that ranged from concert halls to people's homes. the New Zealand Wind Quintet, the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra (NZSO) and visiting conductors such as Karel Ančerl and Alceo Galliera. She played with some of the greatest artists from around the world including, among others, violinists Szymon Goldberg, Ruggiero Ricci, Ladislav Jásek and Henryk Szerying, cellist James Whitehead, trumpet players Gordon Webb and Albert McKinnon and Paul Robeson. and Marie Blaschke.

McStay performed the New Zealand premier of Shostakovich's Piano Concerto No. 2, after writing to the composer, care of the Russian State Music Agency in Moscow, to ask for a copy of his new work. In February 1956, she was among a group of the country's leading pianists who were the first to play Wellington Town Hall's new Steinway piano; she played Mozart's C minor Concerto (K491). In 1961 she played with the Berlin Chamber Orchestra, and in 1968 she played with the Borodin Quartet.

She toured from New Zealand to many countries including Indonesia, South Korea, Hong Kong, the Pacific Islands and Australia.

Students Some of her students included: Katherine Austin Christine Cuming Jeffrey Grice Christine Griffiths David Guerin David James Patrick O'Byrne Cathy Riley Bryan Sayer

Key appointments and qualifications McStay held the LRSM (Licentiate of the Royal Schools of Music), LRAM (Licentiate of the Royal Academy of Music) and ARAM (Hon) (Honorary Associate of the Royal Academy of Music). She was promoted to Commander of the Order of the British Empire, for services to music, in the 1989 New Year Honours.

In 1991, she was awarded an Honorary Doctorate in Music by the University of Auckland.

Personal life McStay married Frank Newhook in 1975.