| Biography | Valda Aveling OBE was an Australian pianist, harpsichordist and clavichordist. Her repertoire was very wide, including composers as diverse as William Byrd, Jan Sweelinck, Sergei Rachmaninoff and Béla Bartók.
At 16 Aveling received teaching and performing diplomas from the NSW Conservatorium of Music, and performed in the Sydney Eisteddfod in 1935 where she won the Sydney Eisteddfod Australian Women's Weekly 100 pound pianoforte scholarship for the most talented juvenile pianist. She then left for Britain to study harpsichord and clavichord with Violet Gordon-Woodhouse. She returned in 1938 to make her piano debut under Malcolm Sargent, at the Sydney Town Hall. In one concert in Manila, she played Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto No. 1, Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto No. 2 and Beethoven's Emperor Concerto. She later came to dislike Beethoven's music, saying there was "nothing light in it".
She was active as a harpsichordist before the emergence of the early music movement, and commissioned works for the instrument from living composers. She was the first to give amplified recitals on the clavichord. She taught at Trinity College of Music, London, and made numerous recordings. Among her notable pupils was pianist Howard Brown. |