Waldemar "Wally" Carl Seidel (11 March 1893 – 17 September 1980) was an Australian pianist, accompanist, and piano teacher who taught many notable pianists from Australia.
Biography
Seidel was born in St Kilda, Victoria in 1893, son of a German immigrant, the pianist and choral conductor Alfred Carl Seidel. Alfred had graduated from the Royal Conservatorium of Music, Leipzig, and migrated to Australia at the age of 19. Waldemar had lessons from his father, from J. Alfred Johnstone, from Benno Scherek, and from Edward Goll (a pupil of Emil von Sauer, who was in turn a pupil of Franz Liszt; Goll's other students included Margaret Sutherland and Linda Phillips).[1] Seidel assumed all of Johnstone's pupils when he returned to England in 1924.[2]
As an accompanist he worked with notable singers such as Amy Castles and Stella Power. In 1925 he joined the staff of the Albert Street Conservatorium, East Melbourne, and in 1931 Bernard Heinze appointed him to the staff of the University of Melbourne Conservatorium, where he taught for the next 43 years, retiring in 1974. He continued to teach privately in retirement.