DREYFUS, Francis Kay

Francis Kay Dreyfus (née Lucas) completed her BMus in 1963, under Roy Shepherd at the Conservatorium of Music at the University of Melbourne. Higher degree studies in musicology took her to the University of York (England) and City University and the Mannes School of Music in New York, but she completed her MMus and PhD in Melbourne.

In 1974 she was offered a job at the Grainger Museum and worked there for over my fifteen years at the Museum. During this time she prepared a number of catalogues, and edited The Farthest North of Humanness, Letters of Percy Grainger 1901-1914 (1985). Her scholarly interests gradually turned away from the idea of ‘music’ as great (European) men writing immortal masterpieces to one of music as the lived experience of music-making by musicians and music lovers (including amateurs and women).

In 1988 she relocated to the School of Music-Conservatorium at Monash University, first as a Research Fellow, then in various research roles, including academic editor. She write about everyday musical experience in Australia, especially that of women and immigrants. Her publications include Sweethearts of Rhythm: The Story of Australia’s All-Girl Bands and Orchestras to the End of the Second World War (1999), and Bluebeard’s Bride: Alma Moodie, Violinist (Lyrebird Press, 2013).

As a composer, she is particularly known for her Sonata for Flute and Piano (1962), which was included in the Australian Music Examinations Board (AMEB) syllabus. She has also composed vocal and chamber works such as Woman's song.