Teacher of note hit right keys

A pianist, organist, repetiteur and widow of Australian baritone David Allen, she became a renowned singing coach, piano teacher and accompanist, and in 1975 was a founding member of the Lieder Society of Victoria, which fosters European, and especially German, art song.

An article in The Age in January 1990, headed Best friend of our top singers, highlighted Allen's work as a repetiteur someone with knowledge of entire operas who assists singers to learn parts. One student (she is pictured with pupil Susan Lauricella in 1990) recalled that Allen was so generous with her time and she knows practically the entire repertoire from a lifetime of unique experience, especially overseas.

The youngest of the four children of Frank and Gertrude Parratt, she grew up with her three brothers in Surrey Hills and attended Canterbury State School. She was dux of grade 8, her final year in 1939. The headmaster described her as a girl of exceptional character and achievement.

Family financial problems curtailed her formal schooling but not her musical education. After studying piano and organ under Allan Dempster and Leonard Fullard, she gained her A Mus A for both instruments. A lifetime Anglican, she became organist at Holy Trinity Church, Surrey Hills, and much later at St Mark's Church, Camberwell.

In 1945, she started work as an accompanist for the handsome young baritone David Allen, formerly an engineer, who lived in the same street.

It was to be strictly a business arrangement," she said. "That lasted all of two weeks! The couple were married in November 1948. David's star was in the ascendant.

After performing with Glenda Raymond and John Lanigan in Hector Crawford's Music for the People concerts and radio programs such as Opera for the People, he secured a soloist's contract with the Italian Grand Opera Company. Kaye coached him in various roles during the company's tour of Australia and New Zealand in 1948-49, and in 1950 he won the Melbourne Sun Aria.

The Allens used the prize money for him to study in Italy under baritone Mario Basiola, and they stayed in Villa Basiola in the village of Annicco near Cremona. She worked as accompanist to her husband and several other pupils of Basiola. A journalist for the Cremona newspaper, La Provincia, informed readers that David Allen, a young baritone, full of hope, and his wife Kaye, a delicatissima pianista had come to stay at the home of one of Italy's greatest baritones.

The Allens moved to England in 1952, and their three children were born there. She divided her time between her children and assisting David to prepare operatic roles. He became a principal with the touring Carl Rosa Opera Company and, from December 1955, a baritone soloist with the Royal Opera at Covent Garden. He joined a host of other Australian singers at Covent Garden, including Joan Sutherland, John Lanigan, Sylvia Fisher and Elsie Morison.

Then tragedy struck in April 1960. Walking home from a church rehearsal for an Easter oratorio, David was struck down by a van that mounted the footpath. He died in hospital, aged only 35. Joan Sutherland sang at the memorial service arranged by Covent Garden.

Allen returned to Melbourne and struggled to cope with the loss of her husband and the need to support her young children. She worked for eight years as an invoice accountant at a plastics factory before gradually becoming absorbed again in the world of music.

In 1968, she started work as a repetiteur for former singer Ian Field at his city academy, and later at the Melba Conservatorium. After Field retired in 1987, Allen expanded her own music studio at her home in Camberwell, where she became a renowned teacher and accompanist.

In 1971, she launched the David Allen Memorial Scholarship for young singers and organised concerts to raise money. Gregory Martin, Ian Lowe and Glenys Cappelli were among many talented singers who benefited. Lowe later sang with the Karlsruhe Opera Company in Germany and today leads several Melbourne musical societies.

Allen ended the scholarship project in 1990, mainly because of her commitments to the Lieder Society of Victoria. She held the combined positions of secretary/assistant artistic director and made her home the society's headquarters. She also founded the David Allen Memorial Award, which is presented at the annual national Liederfest.

Despite suffering a heart attack in 1995, she continued to organise numerous concerts for senior citizens' clubs and retirement villages. A severe stroke in 2006 was another setback, but she retained her involvement with music to the end. Shortly before her death she saw Lowe, her star pupil, perform the role of Count Walter in Verdi's Luisa Miller.

Allen is survived by her children Peter, Rosemary, and Susan, four grandchildren, and four great-grandchildren.