Phyllis Schuldt

Schuldt, Phyllis

Phyllis (Mary) Schuldt (b Ward). Pianist, teacher, b Aldershot, England, 10 Apr 1911, d Vancouver 16 Jan 1982; ARCM 1933, GRSM 1934. The daughter of musicians, descended from five generations of oboe players on her father's side, she was taken to live in Vancouver while a child. In 1929, acting on advice from Ernest MacMillan, she studied (on scholarship) at the RCM under Herbert Fryer, Arthur Benjamin, and Harold Samuel and accompanied the soprano Marjorie Avis, the baritone Keith Falkner, and the bass-baritone William Parsons on tours of England. Returning to Vancouver in 1934, Schuldt became a leading performer and private teacher there. For some 20 years she was the piano partner of Jean de Rimanoczy in public appearances and on radio and accompanied John Goss (in his recitals and with his Singers, 1943-8), Donald Bell (on tour, 1967, during which they premiered Oskar Morawetz'Four Songs on poems of Bliss Carman), and others. She was a duo-pianist 1940-52 with Mary Munn and 1958-66 with Boris Roubakine, giving the first Canadian performance of two Handel Preludes and Fugues in 1963 and the premieres of Jack Behrens'Four Pieces for Three Hands and Three Pieces for Four Hands (ca 1965). She became an adjudicator for the CFMTA in 1935, taught at the faculty at the University of British Columbia 1959-78, and began examining across Canada for the RCMT in 1964. Her pupils include Harold Brown, Don Garrard, Errol Gay, Steven Henrikson, Sharon Krause, Hugh McLean, and Betty Phillips.