INTERVIEW
By the Dart INTERVIEW
GRISELDA GUTHRIE
Interview by Phil Scoble WALKING & TALKING
wind-up HMV gramophone,” griselda guthrie tells me when we meet. “I think it was almost inevitable that music and the arts generally would play a large part in my life with my family background and interests.” griselda, born in Buckinghamshire, was the daughter of a former Naval officer with a distinguished war record. He had a long strong and affectionate bond with the Dart and Dartmouth that was sustained by regular family sailing holidays from the solent. This eventually led to her parents returning to live here on retirement.
“M After being inspired at home during
her early years she studied the piano from the age of seven, gained an honours degree in music as well as performance and teaching diplomas at Goldsmiths College university of London and the Royal Academy of Music & the guildhall, specialising in piano, organ and harpsichord. Whilst studying and teaching in London she also sang in three internationally renowned choirs. After teaching in the late sixties, in 1971 she made a complete change in her life. Following a perilous and, for the times,
incredibly unusual land journey across the ussR (often without visas) to Japan, Griselda ended up in New South Wales in Australia.
y earliest memory was listening to classical music 78’s on the
“I spent the following 20 months teaching and travelling and exploring as much as I could during that time. I moved to New South Wales in Australia permanently in 1973,” she tells me, “I married a solicitor and I continued to teach music. It was so very different from Britain – and a real challenge that often seemed insurmountable and so depressing. However, I did apply myself and became doggedly determined to improve the status of music and drama in all schools and I feel that I achieved a
“I particularly enjoyed working with the Aboriginal children, and finding ways to bring them into the curriculum as well as encouraging them to enjoy and appreciate their own musical culture ”
lot. The music provision was frankly non- existent when I started – a complete nightmare – but I worked very hard to secure funds for equipment and instruments and to build respect for music within the curriculum wherever I went. I particularly enjoyed working with the Aboriginal children and finding
ways to bring them into the curriculum as well as encouraging them to enjoy and appreciate their own musical culture and to feel more of a part of the school community. I also set up rural schools programmes through the Sydney Opera House that brought together a feast of cultural opportunities for visiting schools including opera, concerts, plays and gallery exhibitions. “My last role as a teacher in Australia was to establish a performing arts academy on the premises of a Catholic school that was moving to a new campus. I recruited numerous talented and extraordinary people. We began to work together presenting wonderful concerts, establishing bands, orchestras, theatrical presentations with poetry evenings and then dance classes of numerous varieties for people of all ages. My final achievement was to gain a grant of massive proportions and as far as I know the funding continues.” After 30 years in Australia, griselda came back to Britain – and found herself in Dartmouth. “After my father’s naval career my
parents had moved back to Dartmouth on their retirement. When they got older and then fell ill, I started to come to Dartmouth more and more. For a while I’d travel from Australia at the end of every term but that became too much and I wanted to return home to Britain – Dartmouth seemed the perfect place to stay!”
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