Brisbane-born Ronald Farren-Price has been described as the grand old man of the piano in Australia and a legend in musical circles of this country. Now 94, and only recently retired from the University of Melbourne, he has had an illustrious career as a pianist, scholar and mentor.
From an early age, Ronald displayed an extraordinary talent as a pianist. In 1942, he was a pupil at the local Ascot Primary School. After the fall of Singapore in February 1942, the Australian government feared the possibility of a Japanese invasion. There was also widespread anxiety among the populace and especially those living in Brisbane.
Construction of public air raid shelters was planned throughout the main population centres considered vulnerable to air attack. Some families built their own shelters or trenches; others quit the city. It was this option which Ronald’s father chose for his family. He decided to get his wife and children to a safe place while he would remain in Brisbane to continue his watchmaking business.
The family set off by car in March 1942 with Ron’s father at the wheel. The were leaving their gracious Queenslander house high on a hill in Ascot overlooking the wide Brisbane River. Their destination was the regional town of Warwick on the Darling Downs, about 130 km south west of Brisbane. The population was about 7000 which must have been a big change for the family; at December 1940, Brisbane boasted 335,000 population.
Ronald celebrated his 12th birthday in Warwick. He recalls much about those days in Warwick over 80 years ago: the cold nights, the little fireplace in the cottage in the main street and the pleasure of cycling around the streets at dusk, hoping to encounter the classmate who set his heart throbbing, Gloria Tambling.
Ron’s father arranged for a piano in the Warwick cottage so that young Ronald could maintain his daily practice. He also arranged for him to take piano lessons with a local piano and elocution teacher, Mildred Watt.
However, Ronald doubted ‘Millie’s’ professional competence as a pianist never hearing her play a single note. Moreover, she spent her time with her gifted pupil filing her nails. As a polite 12 primary school lad, he endure rather than enjoyed his time with her.
Fate was about to intervene, however. Ronald left Millie’s class and became a pupil of a gifted piano teacher in Warwick, Robert St Quintin-Downer. He was a veteran of the Great War in Europe and perhaps he, too, was seeking safety for himself and his wife. There are few records of Mr Downer but a notice in the Sydney Morning Herald of 17 September 1923 refers to him as ‘an English pianist of eminence’.
This Englishman was to play an important role in Ronald’s artistic development. Ronald played on an upright piano in his teacher’s cottage, his lasting memory of his teacher being that he was rather ‘Edwardian’.
In Brisbane, Edna Hoskins had been a satisfactory teacher for Ronald but had confined her student to rather safe pieces. Millie Watt’s expectations of her gifted student were even lower. By contrast, Ronald says, St Quintin Downer had ‘something different’ about him. He ‘opened up music’ an challenged his pupil to understand that ‘the spirit takes you’.
How Quintin-Downer got to be in Warwick is unknown but his death notice in the Brisbane Telegraph in 1954 reports that he had been a pianoforte teacher in Brisbane for a number of years.’ Perhaps he was known to Ronald’s father in Brisbane and the two had spoken about Warwick as a safe haven from war.
Downer gave at least one pianoforte recital in Warwick on 2 July 1942. Coincidentally, this was Ronald’s 12th birthday. But he did not attend the performance.
By September 1941, the tide seemed to be turning against the Japanese and the threat of invasion of Australia passed. Thus, Ronald and his family returned to Brisbane. He regretted parting with St Quentin-Downer and felt that his tutor was disappointed to lose his student.
By age 16, it was clear Ronald’s life would be committed to music. He’d demonstrated his prodigious talent by winning many eisteddfods in Queensland but it was time to seek more verdant fields to nurture his talents Many other doors opened to him from then, many other people played their part in his development but he never forgot the profound impact this master in Warwick had on his life as a performing artist.
