CAVENDISH, Kay

Kay Cavendish was the professional name of Kathleen Dorothy Cavendish Murray, a Hong Kong-born British pianist, singer, broadcaster and composer of light piano music. She studied at the Royal Academy of Music, where she received a gold medal, and initially appeared as a classical concert pianist.
Around 1930, Cavendish joined the close-harmony ensemble The Cavendish Three. During the Second World War she performed for ENSA and appeared regularly in BBC variety programmes, including It’s That Man Again. She later became especially associated with the weekly programme Kay on the Keys, which ran for more than 400 broadcasts and combined classical music, jazz, popular songs and piano improvisation. Her work as an improviser and broadcaster considerably overshadowed her small surviving catalogue of compositions