TORPHICHEN, Pamela

Pamela Mary Sandilands (the Dowager) Lady Torphichen was educated at the Convent (Old Palace) Mayfield, Sussex, and the Royal Academy of Music (where she obtained her degree: LRAM). Afterwards she trained with the Red Cross and became a V.A.D. nurse (serving with the Royal Navy) in the last years of the 2nd World War.
Ever since her time at the Royal Academy of Music Pamela continued her interest in the piano. She studies piano with York Bowen and singing with Roy Henderson and composition with Dr. Frederick Durrant. In 1977, she collaborated with Lee Pierce, writing the music for the play Tea and Tyranny which was performed at the Loeb Theatre, Cambridge, Mass. (USA). In 1988 she read Irina Ratushinskaya’s poem Song of Freedom, en route to Boston and, by the time the plane landed, the song was almost complete. Some of her later musical compositions have been published and performed (most notably The Great Atlantic Waltz which she composed to mark NATO's Anniversary: this was first performed by musicians at their 40th anniversary party held in London in 1989 and received favourable reviews in the press at the time).