Elsie Hall

Elsie Maude Stanley Hall (22 June 1877 – 27 June 1976), commonly referred to as Elsie Stanley Hall, was a prominent Australian-born South African classical pianist.

Elsie Hall
Elsie Hall and Dutch violinist Herman Salomon (1958)
Born(1877-06-22)June 22, 1877
Toowoomba, Qld
DiedJune 27, 1976(1976-06-27) (aged 99)
Wynberg, South Africa
NationalityAustralian
Known forSinging

Life

Hall was born in Toowoomba, Queensland, Australia, the oldest daughter of William Stanley Hall (c.1845 – 19 June 1927), a journalist, and his wife Mary Ann, née Sadgrove, a piano teacher.[1] 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,[2] and Sarah Chalkey Stanley, who married George Pearce Baldwin.

She took up the piano at the age of three, and was a child prodigy.[1] In 1883 she attended the Intercolonial Juvenile Industrial Exhibition in Parramatta, New South Wales, and won a prize for her piano performance.[3] In 1888 she was enrolled at the Stuttgart Conservatory in Germany.[1] In 1890 she was awarded a pianoforte scholarship at the Royal College of Music, but declined and instead studied at Harrow Music School under John Farmer, and then at the Royal High School for Music in Berlin.[1] Her patron there was Marie Benecke, eldest daughter of Felix Mendelssohn.[1]

Hall married South African scientist Dr. Frederick Otto Stohr, originally Stöhr (1871–1946), in London on 22 November 1913.[4] He had been conducting ornithological research in Northern Rhodesia (modern Zambia); they settled in South Africa, where he later practised medicine.[5] When her father, founding editor of the Fiji Times and later on the literary staff of the Sydney Morning Herald, retired, he moved to South Africa to live with his daughter and son-in-law.[2]

She spent many years in South Africa, where she performed 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.[6]

She appeared as a castaway on the BBC Radio programme Desert Island Discs on 28 April 1969.[7]

Hall died at Wynberg, South Africa, and was buried at Hout Bay Cemetery.[1]

Autobiography
  • Hall, Elsie (1969). The Good Die Young. Constantia Publishers.

References
  1. Burgis, Peter (1983). Australian Dictionary of Biography. 9. Melbourne University Press.
  2. "Miss Sarah Stanley Hall". The Sydney Morning Herald (26, 659). New South Wales, Australia. 15 June 1923. p. 6 – via National Library of Australia.
  3. "The Intercolonial Juvenile Industrial Exhibition, Parramatta and the Discovery of a New Talent". Parramatta Heritage Centre.
  4. "Social Gossip". Warwick Examiner And Times (4524). Queensland, Australia. 5 January 1914. p. 4 – via National Library of Australia.
  5. C. Plug. "S2A3 Biographical Database of Southern African Science:F. O. Stohr". Retrieved 21 October 2016.
  6. Elsie hall and Herman Salomon, Johannesburg 1958
  7. "Desert Island Discs - Castaway : Dr Elsie Hall". BBC Online. BBC. Retrieved 13 August 2014.
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