Ms. Waterman was born on March 22, 1920, in Leeds, the second little one of Mary (Behrman) Waterman and Meyer Waterman (the household identify was initially Wasserman). Her mom was an English-born daughter of Russian immigrant Jews. Her father, born in Ukraine, was a talented jeweler.
Although the household struggled financially, her dad and mom got here up with sufficient cash to offer younger Fanny with piano classes as soon as her expertise grew to become clear. She practiced on an outdated upright piano and studied with a neighborhood trainer, whereas her brother, Harry, took violin classes.
At 18, she grew to become a scholarship scholar on the Royal Faculty of Music in London, learning with Cyril Smith. She carried out Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 23 in 1941 with the Leeds Symphony Orchestra, the identical 12 months she met Dr. de Keyser, then a younger medical scholar, whom she would marry in 1944. With the beginning of her first little one, Robert, in 1950, Ms. Waterman determined to commit herself to instructing.
Robert de Keyser survives her, as do one other son, Paul, a violin trainer, and 6 granddaughters. Her husband died in 2001.
As soon as the Leeds Competitors acquired going, Dr. de Keyser grew to become intimately concerned, each in recommending lists of repertory and in writing up guidelines. “He was a health care provider, however his data of music was second to no one,” Ms. Waterman mentioned in 2010.
In 1966 Ms. Waterman and her husband purchased Woodgarth, a powerful eight-bedroom Victorian home in Oakwood, a suburb of Leeds. She saved two tremendous pianos in its spacious drawing room, the place she taught, made plans for the competitors and presided over energetic musical soirees that included visitors just like the composer Benjamin Britten and the tenor Peter Pears, in addition to Prime Minister Edward Heath. Ms. Waterman bought the home this 12 months.