Associate Professor Rae de Lisle awarded the NZOM

Associate Professor Rae de Lisle awarded the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to music

A musician, researcher and teacher at the University of Auckland, credited with strengthening the training and standard of New Zealand’s classical pianists, has received a Queen’s Birthday Honour. Yesterday, Associate Professor Rae de Lisle, from the School of Music, was named as a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit, for services to music.
In a career spanning more than four decades Associate Professor de Lisle has been among a handful of individuals in this country who have achieved international distinction in the field of classical music.

As a gifted young pianist she travelled to the United Kingdom to undertake further studies and quickly established a reputation as a pianist of unusual intellectual power and artistic refinement.

On her return to New Zealand she became one of the country’s busiest professional musicians, appearing in numerous solo recitals and chamber music performances as well as featuring regularly as a national recording artist for Radio New Zealand.

Due to injury Associate Professor de Lisle shifted her focus to teaching. Her students have gone on to become New Zealand’s top pianists, winning every major local and national competition as well as enjoying success in many important international competitions.

Associate Professor de Lisle’s own experience of performance-related injury made her particularly sensitive to the danger of injury in others. She developed a interest in focal dystonia, a debilitating and generally career-ending injury that is prevalent among musicians.

Her pioneering work in this area, carried out jointly with a number of New Zealand’s leading medical researchers, demonstrated that recovery was possible for individuals suffering from this previously untreatable condition.

Her doctoral thesis and a series of papers published in leading scientific journals are regarded internationally as the benchmark literature in the field.

“Throughout her varied and distinguished career Rae has been a high achiever whose work has enriched the lives of others and done much to strengthen the training and standard of New Zealand’s classical pianists,” says Associate Professor Allan Badley, Head of the School of Music.

“Perhaps of even greater importance, is the enormous energy Rae has devoted over many years to giving workshops for teachers and young pianists throughout the length and breadth of New Zealand,” he says.

Associate Professor de Lisle’s international reputation as a pianist and teacher is evidenced by regular invitations to adjudicate at major competitions and her status as the leading authority on the treatment of focal dystonia in musicians, means that she is consulted on a regular basis by musicians from all over the world.

She was instrumental in establishing in 2013 and 2014 respectively the Wallace National Piano Competition and the Wallace International Piano Festival, initiatives designed both to lift the standard of piano playing in New Zealand.

ENDS

The University of Auckland’s National Institute of Creative Arts and Industries comprises the Elam School of Fine Arts, School of Architecture and Planning, the Centre for Art Studies, the School of Music and the Dance Studies Programme.

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