Rhondda Gillespie

Rhondda Gillespie (4 August 1941 – 30 December 2010) was an Australian-born classical pianist who resided primarily in the United Kingdom and Barbados. She was a specialist in the music of Franz Liszt and brought to light many of his lesser-known works. She was also renowned for her focus on contemporary music, and she gave many world premieres of British music.

Rhondda Marie Gillespie was born in Sydney in 1941. She was an only child. At the age of 8 she played Manuel de Falla's Ritual Fire Dance on Jack Davey's radio show Star Search. She gave her first public recital at 12. Her formal studies were at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music under Alexander Sverjensky (where her fellow students included Malcolm Williamson, Richard Farrell and Roger Woodward) and in Britain under Louis Kentner and Denis Matthews.

She won the Harriet Cohen Commonwealth Medal in 1959.

Wilfred Josephs' 14 Studies for Piano, Op. 53 were written for Rhondda Gillespie, Joy Blech and Yonty Solomon. Gillespie gave the world premiere of the complete set at the Cheltenham Festival in 1967.

She was the second wife of the music critic and musicologist Denby Richards. They married on 29 May 1973 but divorced in 1977.

In 1976, for Joseph Horovitz's 50th birthday, Rhondda Gillespie played his Jazz Concerto at the Queen Elizabeth Hall. She played Franz Liszt's piano transcription of Hector Berlioz's Symphonie fantastique at the 1977 London Liszt Festival. With the actor Michael Gough she also gave the first complete performance in London of Liszt's dramatic recitations.

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