News Archive

The Celluloid Piano: at the movies with Eileen Joyce

Date: Tuesday 10th November

Venue: Tunley Lecture Theatre, UWA Music School

Time: Doors open 7:00pm followed by the speaker at 7:30pm

Cost: $5 donation (Friends of the Library Members free)

The  final 2015 meeting of the Friends of the UWA Library will be held on Tuesday 10 November at 7.30pm in the Tunley Lecture Theatre in the School of Music. Dr Victoria Rogers will present a talk entitled The Celluloid Piano: at the movies with Eileen Joyce. Born in Zeehan, Tasmania and raised in the goldfields of Western Australia, Joyce forged a brilliant international career as a concert pianist in the 1930s, 40s and 50s. This talk deals with a little known aspect of Joyce's career: her work in film. The presentation will include a number of fascinating film clips from her movies, contextualizing her work in this area in the context of both her career and filmic history.

About the Speaker

After completing her undergraduate degree and Dip. Ed. at UWA, Victoria taught English at PLC before embarking upon a fifteen–year career as a professional cellist. Her performance career included positions with the Sydney, West Australian, Queensland and Tasmanian Symphony Orchestras, as well as an appointment as co–principal cellist with the State Orchestra of Victoria. There were some magical highlights along the way, almost all of which involved work with the Australia Opera and the Australian Ballet. There was the season of Lucia Di Lammermoor, with Joan Sutherland singing the title role and Richard Bonynge conducting; the strength and purity of Sutherland's voice lingers still in Victoria's memory. The season of Boris Godunov was equally memorable, a marathon opera that began at 4.00pm and finished – after two intervals – at 11.00pm. Victoria was also privileged to perform most of the Stravinsky ballets during a truly golden era of the Australian ballet. It was at this time, too, that Margot Fonteyn danced – or rather walked (she was well into her 50s by then) a season of The Merry Widow. Fonteyn's stage presence was, even then, truly magical.

Victoria left her performance career in 1987. She worked for some time as the executive officer in a national programme that linked industry research projects with university honours students. It was interesting work and she gained valuable experience in marketing and research design. But the muse beckoned once more. She returned to music, this time to undertake doctoral studies. Her doctoral thesis on the music of the Australian composer, Peggy Glanville–Hicks, was subsequently published by the British academic publisher Ashgate. After completing her doctorate, Victoria was appointed to the position of director of the Callaway Centre, a research centre based in the School of Music at UWA. From this she moved into academic teaching in the School of Music, a position she left early in 2015. She is currently working (with co–authors David Tunley and Cyrus Meher–Homji) on a book entitled Essays on the Artistry of Eileen Joyce, and she continues to supervise a number of postgraduate students.