Nancy Salas papers, music scores and Bartók Society of Australia records

fonds

1894-1990

Textual Records, Notated Music, Manuscript Notated Music, Ephemera, Clippings, Musical Sound Recordings, Nonmusical Sound Recordings, Graphic Materials, Photographs, Drawings, Medals, Posters

152235

29.75 metres of textual material (45 boxes and 74 outsize boxes) includes photographs and 10 drawings
14 audiotape reels
1 medallion
5 posters

Nancy Evelyn Salas (1910-1990), pianist, harpsichordist, teacher, lecturer, examiner and adjudicator, was born in Coolgardie, Western Australia, to parents Godfrey Dowling Salas and Annie (née Maguire). Nancy Salas took piano lessons from Adela Harris in Kalgoorlie before moving to Sydney in 1934. She studied with Alexander Sverjensky at the NSW State Conservatorium of Music from 1938. Salas taught at the McMahon School of Music prior to opening her own pianoforte studio. As a performer, Salas played harpsichord with the Elizabethan Players in the early 1950s, as well as piano with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra under Eugene Goossens and for the Australian Broadcasting Commission. Salas was appointed to the staff of the Conservatorium in Sydney in 1955, teaching piano and later also harpsichord. She lectured in Bach, Bartók and Group Teaching.

Founding the Bartók Society of Australia in 1955, she travelled to Hungary in 1963 to study the archives of the composer Béla Bartók. In the 1970s Salas began the Bartók Youth Festival. Her advocacy resulted in Bartók’s works being included in the Australian Music Examinations Board (AMEB) syllabus.

Salas was a recognised authority on baroque performance practice and a pioneer of early music revival in Australia. Her private collection of keyboard instruments included a harpsichord, clavichord, spinet and fortepiano. She undertook further baroque research in 1971 with Gustav Leonhardt in Amsterdam and Ralph Kirkpatrick at Yale University, USA. Salas was also an enthusiastic promoter of contemporary piano repertoire. In 1973, her students performed the complete solo piano works of Karlheinz Stockhausen in Sydney and Melbourne, causing one music critic to call her a ‘mature enfant terrible’ of piano pedagogy. In the same year, Salas' students presented a seven-hour ‘Mozart Marathon’ concert in both cities.

Salas was active in several music organisations, many of which she founded. She was a State Councillor for the Australian Society for Music Education in 1968-1974. Salas co-founded the Music Students' Overseas Study Foundation (MSOS) in 1972 and was appointed to the State AMEB Advisory Board in 1973. She was Co-ordinator and President of the United Music Teachers of NSW formed in 1975 by Roger Woodward and she established the Early Music Association of NSW in 1977.

Salas had a far-reaching impact on Australia’s musical life, recognised in Australia and internationally. Her many distinguished students include Diane Selmon, Ray Hartley, Kathryn Selby, Sarah Grunstein and Paul Dyer. The West German government presented Salas with a Beethoven commemorative medallion in 1970 for outstanding work in the field of music. In 1977 she was appointed MBE and awarded the Queen’s Silver Jubilee Medal. Salas retired from the Conservatorium in 1980 after 25 years. The Hungarian government awarded her a medallion in 1981 for services in the promotion of Bartók's music.

In her personal life, Salas married 21-year-old Halford Leonard (Len) Emerson Oldershaw in 1942. They divorced in 1955. In 1956, she married Victor Leonard Coleman. They divorced in 1971. Salas died childless in 1990 at her home in Mosman.

References:
Selby, Kathryn. “Salas, Nancy Evelyn (1910-1990).” Australian Dictionary of Biography. Accessed 6 July 2022. https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/salas-nancy-evelyn-15761

Also compiled from the collection.

SERIES 1
Nancy Salas papers and other material

SERIES 2
Nancy Salas music manuscripts

SERIES 3
Nancy Salas printed music collected

SERIES 4
Nancy Salas journals and syllabuses collected

SERIES 5
Nancy Salas sound recordings

SERIES 6
Bartók Society of Australia records

SERIES 7
Bartók Society of Australia journals and booklets collected

SERIES 8
Bartók Society of Australia sound recordings

English, Hungarian

Copyright restrictions may apply:
Please acknowledge:: Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales and Courtesy copyright holder

68 books on music from the library of Nancy Salas are catalogued in the Library's printed collection with the note "Donated by Nancy Salas". A further 49 books are in the process of being added.