Pierrette was one of the longest serving members of the Musicians’ Union. Photo: Shutterstock.
Pierrette was born in 1925 and aged 16, she won a scholarship to the Royal Academy of Music where she continued to win prizes. During air raids she would flout strict Academy safety rules by practising at the top of the building, when everyone was meant to be underground in air raid shelters. Pierrette never lost her rebellious spirit!
After leaving the Academy, Pierrette studied for a year at the Paris Conservatoire. In April 1949, aged 23, Pierrette featured on Opportunity Knocks, a precursor of today’s talent shows, hosted by Hughie Green. She played the first movement of Lalo’s Symphonie Espagnole at the Empress Hall in Earls Court.
Joining the Philharmonia Orchestra
Pierrette was fabulous as both an orchestral player and a chamber musician. In 1952 the Galeone Pianoforte Ensemble (which Pierrette founded with Cecil Aronowitz, Norino Semino, Adrian Beers and Sidney Crooke) had rave reviews in the Telegraph, Times and The Stage.
Sir John Barbirolli was keen to have her play in his Halle Orchestra, based in Manchester. But Pierrette was very much a London home bird and was relieved when Walter Legge, who had recently formed the London based Philharmonia Orchestra, invited her to join it.
In the Philharmonia, Pierrette had many adventures, playing with world-renowned conductors and soloists such as Karajan, Cantelli, Menhuin, and Toscanini, and touring the USA, South America and much of Europe— which was quite a thing after the austerities of the second world war.
An MU member for 77 years
Ten years ago, Pierrette featured in a YouTube film made by the Philharmonia as part of their 70th Birthday celebrations, describing what it was like to be a female musician in the 50s. Women were most definitely in the minority at that time.
Pierrette was one of the longest serving members of both the Musicians’ Union and the Royal Society of Musicians. She died eight months before her 100th Birthday in 2025.
Pierrette joined the MU in 1948. This tribute has been provided by her daughter, Fiona Duncan Wilson.