Fanny Waterman

Waterman turned 100 on 22 March 2020. She died at a care home in Ilkley on 20 December 2020.

She donated her papers and memorabilia to the library of the University of Leeds in November 2017.

She was a guest for BBC Radio Four's Desert Island Discs in July 2010. Although then aged 90, she was still teaching masterclasses and continued to be involved with every detail of the Leeds competition. "They call me Field Marshal Fanny" she said, "I am a busy breeches."

She was Director of the Postgraduate Certificate in Advanced Piano Performance at Leeds College of Music until 2006, and a patron of The Purcell School for Young Musicians. She served as honorary vice-president of the British Society of Women Musicians and honorary president of the Harrogate International Festivals from 2009.

She published a number of piano instruction books. This included the 30-volume Me and My Piano series, which was co-authored with Thorpe, and sold more than 2 million copies worldwide. She co-wrote Piano Competition: The Story of the Leeds with Wendy Thompson (1990). Her autobiography, My Life in Music, was published in 2015.

Waterman was appointed OBE in 1971, CBE in 2001 and DBE in the 2005 New Year Honours. She was also awarded the degree of Doctor of Music (DMus) honoris causa by the University of Leeds in 1992, and also received honorary degrees from Leeds Metropolitan University and the University of York. Her contribution to the city of Leeds was further recognised in April 2006, when she was given the Freedom of the City.

By the early 1960s, Waterman felt that young British pianists needed a goal to give them a competitive edge over overseas pianists. In 1961, jointly with her pianist friend Marion, Countess of Harewood (later Marion Thorpe), and Roslyn Lyons, she founded the Leeds International Piano Competition. She was artistic director of the competition and, from 1981, chair of the competition jury, holding the posts until 2015. Finalists of the competition who began an international career based on it include Radu Lupu, Murray Perahia, Sunwook Kim, Federico Colli, Eric Lu, András Schiff, Mitsuko Uchida, Lars Vogt and Denis Kozhukhin.

In 1944, she married Geoffrey de Keyser, a doctor, and in 1950, with the arrival of her first child, gave up her concert career and concentrated on teaching. They had two sons; Paul de Keyser became a musician and music author. Geoffrey de Keyser died in 2001.

She started giving public performances, and in 1941 opened the concert season in Leeds with the Leeds Symphony Society. The following year, she appeared at The Proms as one of the soloists playing the Bach Concerto for three harpsichords in C major (BWV 1064), conducted by Sir Adrian Boult, but her concert career was disrupted by the Second World War. She played duos with the violinist Erich Gruenberg.

Dame Fanny Waterman DBE (22 March 1920 – 20 December 2020) was a British pianist and academic piano teacher, who is particularly known as the founder, chair and artistic director of the Leeds International Piano Competition. She was also president of the Harrogate International Music Festival.