Alumna’s donation returns piano to teaching role at Avondale
A donation by an Avondale alumna has returned a piano to its original home and to its role as a teaching tool.
The 5-foot, 8-inch Yamaha G2 grand piano comes to Avondale Conservatorium from the Clapham family, which has a long association with Avondale College of Higher Education.
Noel Clapham, head of the Music Department from 1952 to 1957, conducted the Avondale Symphonic Choir, now the Avondale Singers. He is described by author Milton Hook in Avondale: Experiment on the Dora, which details the history of the college of higher education, as being “devoted to teaching” and “engrossed in a love of language, history and music.”
Noel’s wife, Joy, offered piano lessons to students in the area. Claire Howard Race, a lecturer in music at Avondale, remembers Joy using the Yamaha G2 to teach her.
Noel and Joy cherished the piano, says son John. Joy considered it her “lifeblood,” he adds, because it provided a source of income.
In addition to the piano, the family has also donated a viola made in the 1950s by Avondale alumnus John Young and an extensive collection of sheet music for organ, piano, viola, violin and voice.
According to conservatorium director Aleta King, while the monetary value of the donated items is significant, the usefulness and sentimentality of the items is more important. “The inestimable value of the items is in the contribution they’ll make to our staff members and students, both now and for generations to come.”
The conservatorium acknowledged the Clapham family’s donation at Evensong this past Saturday (May 2).
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