Nancy Weir

Nancy Mary Weir (13 July 1915 – 14 October 2008) was an Australian pianist and teacher.

Biography Weir was born in Kew, Melbourne, on 13 July 1915. Her father was a publican who ran a small hotel in Lockhart, near Wagga Wagga, and she grew up "behind the bar".

She studied piano in Melbourne with Edward Goll (a pupil of Emil von Sauer and grand-pupil of Franz Liszt) and Ada Corder (Freeman). She was renowned as a child prodigy, performing to great acclaim. A review of her concert performance in December 1929 noted, With all her latent power, and natural gift for artistic expression, Nancy played Schumann's Scenes from Childhood, the work in which she exhibited her rare talent at the Town Hall some time ago. The unaffected simplicity of the child's playing, coupled with a sure grasp of the expressive and pictorial possibilities of the Scenes, constituted the charm of her renditions; The audience expressed the highest pleasure in Nancy Weir's clever playing and phenomenal success.

At age 13, she performed Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 3, with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, under the English-born conductor Fritz Hart. "fine technique and of fine interpretations" and "gradation of tone obtained with expert delicacy, and played with great subtlety".

As part of the Arts Festival for the 1956 Melbourne Olympics she performed the Schumann Piano Concerto on 5 December, with the Victorian Symphony Orchestra under Sir Bernard Heinze. She subsequently threw herself into a busy teaching and performing career, making several recordings for the Spotlight label.

In May 1966, she moved from Melbourne to take a position at the Queensland Conservatorium of Music in Brisbane. Here, her students included Piers Lane, Geoffrey Cox, Regis Danillon, Keith Crellin, Christopher Wrench, Arthur Do Rozario and the comedian Gerry Connolly. Piers Lane noted, "She could be difficult to cope with, but she had a wonderful sense of humour and a high intelligence. Quite a temper, too. But we didn’t clash, and had a stimulating relationship. I was inspired by her."

In 1968-69, Nancy Weir appeared as the piano soloist with orchestras in concerts presented by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (then known as the Australian Broadcasting Commission).

During her Queensland years she notably led the Students' Symphonic Safaris bus tours throughout the state and, after retiring from the Conservatorium in 1980, purchased the Rialto Theatre in West End in 1983,

Her awards include Officer of the Order of Australia (1995) for services to music and music education,

List of performances Melbourne Town Hall, 6 July 1929, Beethoven: Piano Concerto No 3, Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, Fritz Hart Melbourne Town Hall, 5 December 1956, Schumann Piano Concerto Op 54, Victorian Symphony Orchestra, Sir Bernard Heinze Brisbane City Hall, 1979, Beethoven: Piano Concertos Nos 3 and 4, Queensland Symphony Orchestra, Vanco Cavdarski

Anecdotes

One of the best known anecdotes of the many anecdotes involving Weir's activities is the case of her dashing in her Volkswagen over the Story Bridge, late for a lesson, and discovering that she had left her studio keys at home. Executing a neat U-turn, mid-bridge, she was pulled over by a policeman. She explained her strategy to him, apologised and went on saying that she had a concert at the Conservatorium soon, and invited the policeman to come along. Not only did he not give her a ticket, she sold him one. He did come to the concert and they became very good friends, and he subsequently attended many of her performances.

It is reported that Weir continued to add registration stickers to her car windscreen year-by-year without removing the old ones. After they had formed a significant collection up the left-hand side of the windscreen, she was pulled over by a policeman (presumably not the same one as in the U-turn anecdote) who informed her that they had to be removed. Nancy's solution to the problem was unpredictable, as always: she bought a new car and started over!

Her much-loved dog Cully arrived at her Hamilton flat unannounced, and despite Weir's best efforts to locate the owner, Cully refused to leave. Many happy years together ensued, during which Cully appeared on stage in Bach's Coffee Cantata, Bizet's Carmen (at Innisfail, on a Symphonic Safari) and at many a concert thereafter. Cully was a part-time music critic, who regularly let students know if their performance was not up to standard by producing "the most outrageous howling", in her mistress's words. At the end of her life, Cully, crippled and very weak, was warned by her adoring and saddened owner that she "might have to make that special trip to the vet". That same evening, Cully, who never ventured far from Weir's side, ran out onto the street and was knocked down by a car.

Weir's 1887 Steinway piano has now been fully restored. It may be seen in Greg Gesch's 14-minute video on YouTube.