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Vale Denise Shepherd

8 December 1927 - 30 May 2014


Tributes poured in when the much-loved French coach Denise Shepherd (nee Schubenel) passed away in Melbourne on May 30. Denise was regarded in Australian opera and concert circles as a national treasure. She generously shared her love of French culture and music with a roll-call of devoted artists.

Born in Paris in December 1927, she had a privileged upbringing. Her parents had their own box at both the Opera and Comédie-Française, and from an early age she was trained in the social graces and the art of conversation.

Denise studied 18th Century French history at the Sorbonne. Her powers of recall were remarkable: she would refer to Madame de Maintenon, Louis XIV’s second wife, as if to a friend she had met yesterday. Denise studied singing at the Conservatoire where the renowned baritone Pierre Bernac spotted her and chose her for his interpretation class. Bernac’s composer partner Francis Poulenc often accompanied at the piano.Denise was a link to a vibrant period in post-war France, her birth, upbringing and education placed her directly in the Paris of the 30s and 40s. She experienced the German occupation and France’s liberation. In the Paris of the jazz-age she saw the birth of Existentialism.

Denise loved evoking that rich milieu of important figures such as Nadia Boulanger, Yvonne Printemps, Jean-Paul Sartre, Jean-Louis Barrault, the young Marcel Marceau, Simone de Beauvoir, composers Georges Auric, Arthur Honegger, Reynaldo Hahn, Joseph Kosma, Jacques Prévert – and our own Keith Humble. Albert Camus was one of her teachers.

Aged only 20, she performed leading roles at the Strasbourg Opera. Although singing was her passion, family always came first and when given an ultimatum by her authoritarian mother to “choose family or stage”, she was forced to renounce a career in opera . After a short period working as a model with family friend Christian Dior, she travelled to England to escape the suffocating expectations for a woman of her class.

In 1953 at the age of 26, she struck out for herself and came to Sydney. She rejoiced in the freedom Australia offered. An invitation from piano teacher Roy Shepherd, a towering figure in Melbourne’s music scene, soon enticed her to Melbourne. She had met Roy in Paris when he was studying with the great Alfred Cortot. After a whirlwind romance they married and Denise embraced her new life as the centre of a family of her own. This larger than life French creature made an impact on the rather stuffy Melbourne society of the 1950s.

With her two young sons at school, Denise taught French, first at Christ Church School in South Yarra, then, for 19 years, at Merton Hall.

The French style is notoriously elusive to non native speakers and as a French coach Denise was uniquely equipped to illuminate the meaning hidden behind the notes on the page, singing in her delicate voice to demonstrate the subtlest nuances, and showing just how far to push a phrase or how to give lightness and lilt to a technically difficult passage.

Although demanding as a teacher, this hard edge was not due to egocentricity. It came from her love for a tradition with which she had been entrusted. It was always a revelation to hear Denise transform into a piece of art the frequently blank palette of a singer’s prepared work. She opened up a world of poetry, with melodies replete with sensuality, anguish and pain, encouraging her pupils to give their all in performances imbued with sophisticated French style.

By nature not ambitious and devoid of ‘sharp elbows’ she was nevertheless utterly determined. Driven to share her passion for her native language and the music it inspired, she was a brilliant mentor and teacher to hundreds of young artists. At the Victoria State Opera and Opera Australia she proved a formidable coach for many distinguished singers.

Many institutions benefited from her generosity, including The Lieder Society of Victoria, ANAM (Australian National Academy of Music), Mietta’s Art song Award, the Melba Foundation and the ABC. She unraveled the mysteries of singing French opera, mélodie (French art song) and cabaret, by drawing on her first-hand experiences with experts of the genres.

In the last decades of her life she was legally blind with only three per cent of her vision, the result of wartime restrictions and malnutrition. But she never lost her love of performance, and in her 70s, performed at Mietta's Salon, belting out Edith Piaf torch songs dazzlingly attired, with a young gentleman on each arm.

Adrian Collette, former CEO of Opera Australia, studied with Denise as a young baritone. He remembers that “preparing French repertoire with her…was one of the most satisfying experiences that came my way. She was mischievous and impossibly elegant, had a cabaret artist’s instinct for satire. She made a truly vital contribution to the development of professional singers in this country”.

Linnhe Robertson, a former colleague in Melbourne now at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama, counts herself “truly fortunate to have been left such a rich legacy…everything I have learnt from her has proved to be hugely valuable and important…She gave us a refinement, elegance and depth of French song and opera interpretation”.

David Hobson worked extensively with Denise and says: “We lucky Oz singers were given an armchair ride into this world of European culture. . Time stood still in a working session with Denise. The air seemed to be perfumed with the charm of a bygone era as she weaved her Parisian savoir faire…” 

At ANAM Denise gave Masterclasses filmed by soprano Marilyn Richardson. “In Denise Shepherd hungry Francophiles in Australia found a direct line to the source…she was as surprised and delighted to find herself so highly valued, as were we in the Antipodes to have discovered her - an authentic jewel in our midst.” 

Denise is survived by her sons Robert and Peter, and grandchildren Emily, Adrian, Sarah and Ben.

Maria Vandamme, Founder Melba Foundation