The Yorkshire pianist and founder of the Leeds International Piano Competition has died aged 100

Dame Fanny Waterman DBE passed away peacefully on the morning of Sunday 20 December in her residential care home in Ilkley, Yorkshire. She is survived by her two sons, Robert and Paul, and six granddaughters.

Born in Leeds in 1920, Waterman studied at the Royal College of Music, London, and enjoyed a notable music career, including a performance at the 1942 Proms with Sir Henry Wood. In 1961 she founded The Leeds International Piano Competition with her late husband Dr Geoffrey de Keyser and Marion Thorpe CBE, where she taught piano. Among her greatest achievements as a teacher was in the 1950s when she trained four pianists under the age of 11 from Leeds to such a standard that they received invitations to perform piano concertos at London’s Royal Festival Hall.

In recognition of her services to music, Waterman was awarded an OBE in 1971, CBE in 1999 and in 2005 was appointed Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire. She also received the Freedom of the City of Leeds in 2004 and was made an Honorary Member of the Royal Philharmonic Society in 2010.

Jewish Renaissance’s CEO Janet Levin interviewed Waterman in the January 2012 issue of JR, in which the pair discussed the pianist’s extraordinary life and works. Read the full article below.