Lympany, Dame Moura (real name, Mary Johnstone)
Lympany, Dame Moura (real name, Mary Johnstone)
Lympany, Dame Moura (real name, Mary Johnstone), esteemed English pianist; b. Saltash, Aug. 18, 1916. After studies in Liège, she was a scholarship student of Coviello at the Royal Coll. of Music in London. She then continued her training in Vienna with Paul Weingarten and in London with Mathdilde Verne and Tobias Matthay. At age 12, she made her debut as soloist in Mendelssohn’s G minor Piano Concerto in Harrogate. In 1938 she took second prize in the Ysaÿe Competition in Brussels. For professional purposes, she took the name Moura Lympany, the surname being a transformation of her mother’s maiden name of Limpenny. In 1940 she was soloist in the first London performance of the Khachaturian Piano Concerto, which she later played throughout Europe. After making her first appearances in the U.S. in 1948, she toured throughout the world. In 1979 she was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire and in 1992 a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire. With M. Strickland, she publ. Moura Lympany, her Autobiography (London, 1991). Lympany displayed a remarkable capacity for Russian music, particularly of Rachmaninoff. She also championed such English composers as Delius, Ireland, Cyril Scott, and Rawsthorne.
—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire