She was granted scholarships from the University of Witwatersrand, the Abraham and Olga Lipman Fund and the South African Jewish Board of Deputies Benjamin Newman Bursary (1983–84).
She was surprised to find that, despite generally accepted views to the contrary, early recordings of his music demonstrated that his piano performances compared favourably with those of the great Soviet pianists.
Shostakovich expert David Fanning describes it as "richly rewarding" when considered as "an enthusiastic fact-gathering mission" but criticises it for a failure to develop a "richer critical vocabulary to articulate the strengths in his playing".
[7] Writing in DSCH Journal, Nigel Papworth compliments the work on its coverage of important gaps in the composer's biography and its careful attention to detail.
[6] By contrast, Mark Mazullo criticizes the work as presenting a "superficial commentary" on the music of Shostakovich although he admits it contains some new reminiscences and quotes which unfortunately are not adequately discussed.