Yale Bulletin and Calendar

January 17, 2003|Volume 31, Number 15|Two-Week Issue

Ward Davenny

Ward Davenny, noted pianist
and long-time Yale teacher, dies

Concert pianist Ward Davenny, professor emeritus at the School of Music, died of heart failure on Dec. 10 at age 85.

Professor Davenny had a distinguished and versatile career as piano soloist, concerto performer, chamber music player, teacher, lecturer and administrator -- remaining active in all these activities throughout his life.

Born in Ashtabula, Ohio in 1916, he studied from age 8 to 17 at the Cleveland Institute of Music, where his teacher was the institute's director, Beryl Rubinstein. He earned his bachelor's degree at 17, the youngest graduate of the institute at that time. He then came to Yale, where he studied with H. Stanley Knight. He received bachelor's and master's degrees in music from Yale in 1936 and 1937 respectively. He went on to study with Alfred Casella in Rome while in a year's residency at the American Academy as holder of the Yale Ditson Foreign Fellowship in 1938-1939.

From 1939 to 1943 Professor Davenny was a member of the Yale Music Faculty. After three years in the army, he became director of the Hartford School of Music 1946-1954. He was appointed director of the Cleveland Institute of Music in 1954, succeeding Beryl Rubinstein. In that post, which he held until 1960, he performed extensively as a soloist and as a member of a duo piano team with Arthur Loesser that performed several times with George Szell and the Cleveland Orchestra. He was a member of the Yale Summer School of Music and Art in Norfolk, Connecticut in its first two years (1941 and 1942), then resident pianist for many years. He was pianist of the world-renowned Albeneri Trio 1956-1960.

In 1960 he returned to Yale as chair of the piano department at the School of Music. At Yale, Professor Davenny performed annual solo recitals and numerous duo and ensemble programs with many of his faculty colleagues and guest artists, including the Yale, Guarneri, Tokyo, Fine Arts, Muir and Berkshire string quartets. He performed over 36 piano concertos and collaborated in the recent Schirmer edition of the Debussy Préludes. After his retirement from Yale in 1987, he served as visiting professor of music at the University of Illinois 1989-1991. He was awarded an honorary doctorate of music by the Cleveland Institute of Music in 1990.

A New Haven resident, Professor Davenny was pedeceased by his wife, the former Ena Grace Nelson. He is survived by three children, Susan Davenny Wyner, formerly a singer and now a conductor, of Medford, Massachusetts; Katherine Davenny, an epidemiologist, of Cedar Grove, Maryland; and Ward L. Davenny, an artist and professor of art, of Carlisle, Pennsylvania. He is also survived by four grandchildren and a great-grandchild.

A musical memorial tribute to Professor Davenny will take place in New Haven some time in 2003.

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