"55 years ago"

A review of Muriel Hay by Brian Reid written on Wednesday 6th of July 2011

I was a student in the mid 50's at Belfast High School where Ms Hay's husband, the late Ivor Mills was music teacher. Ivor was a strict disciplinarian and not paying attention could be frankly dangerous. He later went on to become an anchor presenter on ITV and after many years became a senior executive with British Telecom and played a large part in its privatisation.

As a member of the music Society of BHS I attended an evening piano recital (with tea) by Ms Hay who, after having a cup of tea spilled on her dress by me, gave an inspiring programme of piano music on what I remember as an apalling piano, including Liszt's "Au Lac de Wallenstat" and John Irelands "Island Spell" both of which I went to the trouble of learning afterwards.

I have often wondered why Ms Hay hardly recorded anything apart from a couple of Piano duet suites (with Ivor Mills) on BBC radio as she was pretty good. If she did, I would be interested to know. I felt it a little sad that this talented lady had such nonentious directory details as "Piano Teacher" but at least had an inspirational affect on myself, sufficient to spend some time at The RAM in Dublin learning Liszt operatic transcriptions and others.

I have not met Ms Hay since. She receives a passing mention in Ivor Mills' biography and obituary, but was worth more than that. I qualified in Medicine in Dublin in 1968 and have been a physician in Queensland for the past 35 years. I happened to see Ms Hays name in a London directory and thought that I would add some qualification.

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