Encore in Australia

London audiences have packed Albert Hall nine times this season to hear Pianist Eileen Joyce. One thing they like about her is her showmanship. Tall, green-eyed Pianist Joyce makes the most of her looks by frequent changes of dress and hairdo between numbers ("Sequins for Debussy," she once explained deadpan to a reporter, "red and gold for Schumann; hair up for Beethoven, down for Grieg").

The critics may grumble about Eileen's dressy monkeyshines--but they also think that her playing is in Myra Hess's league. U.S. audiences have not yet seen Eileen's act, but millions of moviegoers have heard her (the excellent sound tracks of Rachmaninoff's Concerto No. 2 helped make The Seventh Veil and Brief Encounter two of the best British movies seen in the U.S.).

Last week Pianist Joyce was far from her new fans. She had gone back home to give a charity concert in the Australian mining town of Boulder, "where my father slaved and died." Some of the home folks still remembered her as a red-haired gamin who used to wheeze out Cherry Ripe on a mouth organ for pennies outside of Boulder's Angel Bar.

Lilac for Liszt. Eileen gave her audience of prosperous, dressed-up miners the works. She recalled her father's rebuke when she returned from Europe once before, full of Beethoven concertos. When she was unable to play his favorite Believe Me, If All Those Endearing Young Charms, he had muttered "All your schoolin's bin wasted." This time, in Boulder's city hall, she gave them, among other things, Liebestraum, the "Moonlight"

Sonata and Chopin waltzes. As usual, she put on a good show by changing dresses three times (lilac for Liszt, black for Bach, green for Chopin). Her encore, Home, Sweet Home, had them stamping their feet.

Eileen is not quite sure how old she is, because her illiterate miner father never registered her birth. She guesses that she is mid-thirty-ish, celebrates her birthday on Nov. 12 "for no reason at all--just as an excuse for presents and a quiet party."

A war widow with an 8-year-old child, Eileen is now married to her London agent. She first won notice in England with her records; but the English really warmed up to her when she made wartime tours. Now her records (for English Decca and English Columbia) are snapped up as fast as she makes them.

Break for a Girl. Eileen has not forgotten how she got her start. Years ago, when she was in a Perth convent, a priest brought Composer-Pianist Percy Grainger to hear her play. Grainger, in turn, fetched the great German Pianist Wilhelm Back-haus, who was touring Australia. When Backhaus said that she must go to Leipzig to study, the miners passed the hat to send her. Now Eileen is looking around for another talented Australian girl who needs help. Says she: "This is a man's world, and a girl needs every break."

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.