Margaret Nielsen

Margaret Alison Nielsen (22 August 1933 – 20 April 2023) was a New Zealand pianist, music teacher and academic. In 2005 she was appointed an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to music.

Early life and education Nielsen was born and brought up in Hāwera, and was the youngest of five children born to town clerk Joseph Nielsen and Maisie nee Fennell. Maisie was a piano teacher, and she and daughter Eileen died on the same day in 1936. After Maisie's death her sister Anne, a harpist, moved in to help bring up the children. Nielsen taught analysis and coached chamber music and served several terms as Head of the School of Music. Nielsen is mainly known for her work as a pianist, and performed on Radio New Zealand as well as at lunchtime concerts at the university. She recorded a CD of Lilburn's piano music, as well as pieces by Gillian Whitehead.

Personal life Nielsen married psychoanalyst Mario Fleischl in 1965. Fleischl died in 1971. When Venn Young introduced a private member's bill to legalise homosexuality, Nielsen tried to persuade other politicians to support the reform.