Gordon McBeth

Gordon Alexander Derwent McBeth was one of the six children of Whanganui's chief postmaster. After musical studies in Christchurch, he spent 1906 to 1910 at the Leipzig Conservatorium, then was accepted as a student with the world-famous Max Pauer in Stuttgart. When World War I cut this short, he traveled to the USA to study with Herbert Freyer (a former student of Busoni and Matthay) in New York at the Institute of Musical Art (later known as The Juilliard School).

After the war, in which he served as an entertainer, McBeth had another year's study with Herbert Fryer, by this time a professor at the Royal College of Music in London. In the meantime, he had worked with Elgar, John Ireland, and Cyril Scott. McBeth became an influential and inspiring teacher himself, remembered with reverence by his students, who included composer David Farquhar and pianist Colin Horsley.

Few of his compositions have been found. Apart from the Idyll for piano, there is a song, 'All on a Summer's Day', which was performed in 1937 at the Coronation of George VI and broadcast by the BBC. Found amongst his papers, though, is a small treasure: he had notated on a scrap of paper the song of the huia, now extinct. The last reported sighting of this beautiful bird was in 1907 in the Tararua ranges.

Biography by Gillian Bibby, taken from 'Living Echoes — The First 150 Years of Piano Music from New Zealand'.