Cecile Stevens
{{Use dmy dates|date=October 2021}}{{short description|Australian violinist}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Cecile Stevens
| honorific_suffix = LRAM
| image = CecileStevens1922.png
| alt = A white woman, head tilted back, with curly hair, wearing a dark scarf around her neck
| caption = Cecile Stevens, from a 1922 publication
| other_names = Cecile Molloy (married name)
| birth_name = Cecile Ann Stevens
| birth_date = 1896
| birth_place = Sydney
| death_date = 9 October 1970
| death_place =
| occupation = Violinist
| alma_mater = Royal Academy of Music
| years_active =
| known_for =
| notable_works =
| spouse(s) =
| relatives =
}}
Cecile Ann Stevens Molloy LRAM (1896 – 9 October 1970) was an Australian violinist.
Early life
Stevens was from Sydney, daughter of composer and organist John Michael Stevens and Kathleen Mary Noonan Stevens.{{Cite news|last=Old Chum|date=1926-05-16|title="Old Sydney"|page=24|work=Truth|url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article168727285|access-date=2021-10-24|via=Trove}}{{Cite news|date=1912-03-07|title=Miss Cecile Stevens|page=29|work=Freeman's Journal|url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article111087630|access-date=2021-10-24|via=Trove}}{{Cite news|date=1913-11-30|title=MR. J. M. STEVENS.|page=4|work=Truth|url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article168732611|access-date=2021-10-24|via=Trove}} As a child musician,{{Cite news|date=1911-11-01|title=Miss Cecile Stevens|page=17|work=Sydney Morning Herald|url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article15285369|access-date=2021-10-24|via=Trove}} she was conductor of the Parramatta Convention Orchestra in Sydney. She won a scholarship to attend the Royal Academy of Music in London.[https://mtr.arcade-museum.com/MTR-1922-75-3/index.php?page_no=23 "De Luxe Star Plays for Radio"] The Music Trade Review (July 15, 1922): 23.
Career
Stevens played a Nicola Amati violin, a gift from her father.{{Cite news|date=1921-10-17|title=Miss Cecile Stevens|page=6|work=Toowoomba Chronicle|url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article253314148|access-date=2021-10-24|via=Trove}}{{Cite news|last=Dougherty|first=Henry E.|date=1922-05-15|title=Historic Violin is Brought to Los Angeles; Famous Amati, 300 years old, Valued at $40,000|pages=19|work=Los Angeles Evening Express|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/87683890/historic-violin-is-brought-to-los/|access-date=2021-10-24|via=Newspapers.com}} She played for Princess Mary and entertained wounded troops while performing in Great Britain during World War I, sometimes sharing the bill with Lena Ashwell.{{Cite news|date=1921-11-04|title=Miss Stevens Chats with the 'World'|page=2|work=World|url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article190250052|access-date=2021-10-24|via=Trove}} She made a two-year tour of English vaudeville theatres.
She toured in Canada and the United States after the war,{{Cite news|date=1 July 1920|title=Australian Violinist California Soloist|page=3|work=San Francisco Call|url=https://cdnc.ucr.edu/?a=d&d=SFC19200701.2.47&srpos=7&e=-------en--20--1--txt-txIN-Cecile+Stevens-------1|access-date=October 24, 2021|via=California Digital Newspaper Collection}} and toured in Australia and New Zealand in 1921.{{Cite news|date=24 November 1921|title=Amusements: Miss Cecile Stevens|page=2|work=Advocate|url=https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/69317085/5225960|access-date=October 24, 2021|via=Trove}}{{Cite news|date=21 April 1921|title=Princess Theatre (advertisement)|work=Evening Star|url=https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/ESD19210421.2.62.5?items_per_page=25&page=2628&query=Plaza&sort_by=byTI|access-date=October 24, 2021|via=Papers Past}} "Miss Cecile Stevens is a talented young violinist with a distinguished grace and charm characteristic of her wonderful ability," noted a New Zealand newspaper.{{Cite news|date=19 May 1921|title=Carrie Lanceley; Bright Entertainment at Opera House|page=7|work=Gisborne Times|url=https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/GIST19210519.2.51?items_per_page=25&page=2&query=Cecile+Stevens&snippet=true|access-date=October 24, 2021|via=Papers Past}} She gave radio concerts and made recordings, including a film, in the United States in 1922.{{Cite news|date=July 1, 1922|title=New York Favorites Entertaining from Station WJZ|page=9|work=Radio Broadcasting News|url=https://worldradiohistory.com/Archive-Radio-Broadcasting-News/Radio-Broadcasting-News-1922-07-01.pdf|access-date=October 24, 2021}}{{Cite journal|date=July 22, 1922|title=Cecile Stevens, Australian Violinist and Art De Luxe Artist, Delights Radio Audience|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7JZQAAAAYAAJ&dq=Cecile+Stevens+violin&pg=RA3-PA16|journal=The Music Trades|volume=64|pages=16}} She returned to London in the early 1920s,{{Cite news|date=1929-10-10|title=Weddings: Molloy-Stevens|page=34|work=Freeman's Journal|url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article118065995|access-date=2021-10-24|via=Trove}} and played in London theatres.{{Cite news|date=1925-09-05|title=Player's Gossip|page=22|work=Herald|url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article243619479|access-date=2021-10-24|via=Trove}} After she married in 1929, she moved to East Africa.{{Cite news|date=1950-02-04|title=Melbourne Music Heard in East Africa|pages=6|work=The Age|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/87683594/melbourne-music-heard-in-east-africa/|access-date=2021-10-24|via=Newspapers.com}}{{Cite news|date=1946-08-02|title='She Just Adores Lions'|page=5|work=Sydney Morning Herald|url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article17990090|access-date=2021-10-25|via=Trove}}{{Cite news|date=1946-07-25|title=Even if You Do Meet a Lion or Two on the Road Life in Africa is Not So Wild|page=8|work=Argus|url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article22328904|access-date=2021-10-25|via=Trove}}
Personal life
Stevens married Michael Aloysius Molloy in 1929, in London. She lived with her husband, an Irish veterinary officer,{{Cite book|last=Great Britain Colonial Office|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IVoOAQAAIAAJ&dq=Michael+Molloy+Tanganyika&pg=RA5-PA15|title=Tanganyika Under United Kingdom Administration: Report by Her Majesty's Government in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland to the General Assembly of the United Nations|date=1937|publisher=H.M. Stationery Office|pages=15|language=en}} in Tanganyika Territory,{{Cite news|date=1946-07-27|title=The Life of Melbourne: An Historic Violin|page=11|work=Argus|url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article22329743|access-date=2021-10-24|via=Trove}}{{Cite news|date=1950-03-08|title=First Aid for Rhino|page=40|work=Weekly Times|url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article225449646|access-date=2021-10-25|via=Trove}} at least until he retired in 1950.{{Cite news|date=1950-04-21|title=Visitors from Tanganyika|page=2|work=Forbes Advocate|url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article218703335|access-date=2021-10-25|via=Trove}}
Stevens died in Sydney on 9 October 1970 and was survived by her husband.{{Cite news|date=1970-10-12|title=Deaths|page=34|work=The Sydney Morning Herald}}
References
{{reflist}}
External links
- [https://searchworks.stanford.edu/view/11461840 "Salut d'amour : key of D major"] (De Luxe Reproducing Roll Corporation 1922). An audio recording made by Jean Fabre and Cecile Stevens
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Category:Australian violinists
Category:Alumni of the Royal Academy of Music
Category:Musicians from Sydney