Janetta McStay

[3] Her father, Hugh William McStay, had no formal musical education but great natural talent that enabled him to play almost any instrument.

[8][9][2] A bequest from a great-uncle and fundraising by the local Invercargill community helped to raise money for her to go,[2] and in 1935, aged 18, she sailed to England[3] to study at the Royal Academy of Music in London.

[2] She toured England with a small group of Spanish artists under the auspices of the Arts Council of Great Britain.

[2][19] She played with some of the greatest artists from around the world[20] including, among others, violinists Szymon Goldberg, Ruggiero Ricci, Ladislav Jásek and Henryk Szerying, cellist James Whitehead, trumpet players Gordon Webb and Albert McKinnon and Paul Robeson.

[28] She toured from New Zealand to many countries including Indonesia, South Korea, Hong Kong, the Pacific Islands and Australia.

[1] In 1960, she and Frederick Page were invited by the Chinese Government to China to attend the National Day celebrations in October.

She was a member of the QEII Arts Council Music Panel (1965–67, 1969–71, 1979–81) and the RNZ Concert Programme Advisory Committee, and was President of the Auckland Youth Orchestra (1984–98).

[1] McStay was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire, for services to music, in the 1974 Queen's Birthday Honours.

McStay in 1967, outside her Wynyard Street studio at the University of Auckland