• Musique acceuil
• Kitty's 100th birthday

Kitty Gregorson

My cello teacher

Kitty Gregorson was one of the most influential figures in the musical life of Scotland over the past century. Her own career as a cellist was cut short by the death of her mother and the obligation (of that period) to come home and keep house for her father, an Edinburgh GP.

So Kitty turned to teaching. For decades she taught at the Waddell School of Music, where our daughter Jude was lucky enough to be one of her last pupils, as well as at the St Mary Music School (a residential music school similar to Chetham in England). The well-known cellist, Moray Welsh, is but one of many whose musical careers were shaped by their early years with Kitty.

I attended her 90th and 100th birthday celebrations as well as the memorial service after her death a couple of weeks short of her 101st birthday. These were moving occasions, when one saw the full extent of the affection and respect which Kitty had commanded.

When she became blind, in her late 80s, she 'retired' and passed most of her young pupils to other teachers Some, like our daughter, refused to move. Others, who went on to music college, continued to return each year to ask Kitty to hear them play.

She continued to teach a few adults, including me. She never saw me play, but she could always hear what I was doing wrong technically. Indeed, I swear her sense of pitch became even more exacting than it had been!

She maintained her incisive, critical ear, warm and kindly nature and wicked sense of humour to the end of her life.