'We shall forever be indebted to her remarkable achievements'

Dame Fanny , founder and President Emeritus of The Leeds International Piano Competition, died peacefully yesterday (Sun Dec 20) at her residential care home in Ilkley, Yorkshire at the age of 100.

Coun Blake said: “Dame Fanny Waterman’s outstanding contribution to music has undoubtedly placed Leeds firmly at the forefront of the international music scene.

Death of Leeds International Piano Competition founder Dame Fanny Waterman

"Her unique tenacity, drive, passion and unending love of music, led her to create the world’s most prestigious piano competition, which she chose to do not in London but in her home city of Leeds where she continued to live and teach and inspire so many people.

"We shall be forever indebted to her remarkable achievements. Our thoughts are with her two sons Robert and Paul, six granddaughters and all those whose lives she touched.”

Dame Fanny, who is survived by her two sons, Robert and Paul, and six granddaughters, founded the Leeds International Piano Competition in 1961 with her late husband Dr Geoffrey de Keyser and Marion Thorpe CBE, then the Countess of Harewood.

The first event followed in 1963 and she remained its Chairman & Artistic Director until her retirement in 2015 at the age of 95.

‘The Leeds’, as it is affectionately known, is one of the world’s foremost music competitions which attracts the world’s finest young pianists.

Born in Leeds on March 22 1920, she studied with Tobias Matthay, and later as a scholar at the Royal College of Music, London, with Cyril Smith.

After a notable performing career, including a performance at the 1942 Proms with Sir Henry Wood, she felt that her real vocation would be as a teacher.

In recognition of her services to music, Fanny Waterman was awarded an OBE in 1971, the CBE in 1999 and in 2005 she was appointed Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire.

In 2004 Dame Fanny Waterman received the Freedom of the City of Leeds, the highest honour the city can bestow and, in 2009, was invited to become President of the esteemed Harrogate International Festivals.

She was made an Honorary Member of the Royal Philharmonic Society in 2010.