Amelia Lee

Amelia Winifred Lelièvre–Lee was born in Napier and became a well-known teacher, composer and performer in the Hawkes Bay. At 22, while living in Auckland, she married French diplomat Auguste Armand Lelièvre. He died in 1911, and she remained a widow for the rest of her life. They didn’t have any children. She was the organist at Sacred Heart Church in Hastings, where she lived, for 50 years, only relinquishing the position the year before she died at the age of 84. She was a respected music teacher, also a member of the Hastings Orchestral Society. The collection of her music in the Alexander Turnbull Library was donated by Father Bruce Goodman who had been given it by the Little Sisters of the Poor who were about to dispose of it. They’d received it from Amelia’s brother who’d kept it after Amelia’s death. She wrote piano music, songs, orchestral music and hymns, none of which are dated.