26 Facts About Nancy Weir

Nancy Mary Weir was an Australian pianist and teacher.

Nancy Weir's father was a publican who ran a small hotel in Lockhart, near Wagga Wagga, and she grew up "behind the bar".

Nancy Weir studied piano in Melbourne with Edward Goll and Ada Corder.

Nancy Weir was renowned as a child prodigy, performing to great acclaim.

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.

Nancy Weir moved to London, where she studied at the Royal Academy of Music with Harold Craxton from 1933 until 1936.

Nancy Weir arrived for her lesson the next week and played the work from memory.

Nancy Weir later explained that, as a student in Berlin, she had a fellow pianist neighbour who played a certain work that she did not know, for several hours every day.

Nancy Weir learned this work by musical osmosis through the walls, and it turned out to be the Chaconne, which, until Craxton gave the music to her, she had never before seen.

Nancy Weir could hear as many as five independent musical lines simultaneously.

Nancy Weir was described in London in the 1930s as having "the best musical ear since Mozart".

Nancy Weir established a career as a performer In London during the period from 1936 until 1954, making her Proms debut with the Bach Concerto in A minor for 4 pianos, conducted by Sir Henry Wood.

Nancy Weir signed up in the Women's Auxiliary Air Force.

Nancy Weir eventually became what she later described as, after the 50 years exclusion period for sensitive Second World War information had expired in 1995, "a musical spy".

Nancy Weir was sent to Egypt and the then Palestine to entertain the troops, accompanying such artists as Paul Robeson and Beniamino Gigli.

Nancy Weir subsequently threw herself into a busy teaching and performing career, making several recordings for the Spotlight label.

Piers Lane and Nancy Weir performed together in this small wooden building.

Nancy Weir was attracted to the area through the work of Dorothy Blines, a local piano teacher and co-founder of the Pinnacle Playhouse.

Nancy Weir was a Life Member of the Accompanists Guild of Queensland, Inc.

Nancy Weir's awards include Officer of the Order of Australia for services to music and music education, an honorary D Mus from Griffith University, the FRAM and the University of Melbourne Conservatorium Centennial Award.

Teacher and pupil got on famously from the start, and Nancy Weir remained faithful to her teacher always, looking after the elderly woman to the very end.

One of the best known anecdotes of the many anecdotes involving Nancy 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.

Nancy Weir 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.

Nancy Weir did come to the concert and they became very good friends, and he subsequently attended many of her performances.

Nancy Weir's much-loved dog Cully arrived at her Hamilton flat unannounced, and despite Weir's best efforts to locate the owner, Cully refused to leave.

That same evening, Cully, who never ventured far from Nancy Weir's side, ran out onto the street and was knocked down by a car.