By HEATH LEES
Singing teacher, born in 1923. Died on Monday, aged 79.
There is hardly a New Zealand singer anywhere in the world who has not felt a great sadness at the news of the passing of Beatrice Webster, MBE. Nearing 80, she was finally claimed by leukaemia.
For almost seven decades
she had been devoted to the world of singing, beginning her own lessons here with Ernest Drake and then studying in Europe with the famous Lucie Manen.
Back in New Zealand, where the opera and choral scene was struggling literally to make its voice heard, Beatrice Webster coached and conducted, animated and adjudicated, and made musical miracles happen in the voices she took over as much as in the choirs and concerts she propagated like flowers in her path.
Beatrice Webster was Auckland's unsung voice teacher. Everyone knew that Dame Sister Mary Leo had produced some world-class singers, but few realised that for more than half her life Beatrice Webster had been unlocking voices - sometimes with Herculean effort and care - from a huge number of emerging New Zealanders. She had her share of high-flyers, and in the 1980s, as voice consultant to the Australian Opera Company, she worked on roles with opera legends such as Sutherland, Pavarotti and Freni.
But Beatrice Webster's natural modesty and well-bred charm discouraged her from trumpeting the high points of her career.
She took greatest delight in enabling her pupils - 65 a week was a regular minimum - to achieve more than they expected, and to enjoy their music to the utmost. She made every student feel special, as if they were the only student she had ever had.
If Beatrice Webster's relationship with music was a lifelong love affair, her marriage to Bill was something more.
They married in 1948 when Bill was a naval officer-turned-medical student and they formed a perfect duet for more than 50 years, giving birth to a quartet of two sons and two daughters. Bill's death last year seemed like the end of Beatrice's life, too.
As one of her last gifts, Beatrice Webster founded the National Singing School, and directed it for more than 10 years. At 70, she could still be seen running 10 times round the piano with her young students at the start of classes, limbering up.
You learned a lot from Beatrice Webster. Some of it was about singing, the rest was about life.
By HEATH LEES
Singing teacher, born in 1923. Died on Monday, aged 79.
There is hardly a New Zealand singer anywhere in the world who has not felt a great sadness at the news of the passing of Beatrice Webster, MBE. Nearing 80, she was finally claimed by leukaemia.
For almost seven decades
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