Sonya Hanke, Date of Birth, Place of Birth, Date of Death
TweetSonya Hanke
(1933–1993) pianist and teacher
Date of Birth: 27-Sep-1933
Place of Birth: Hunters Hill, New South Wales, Australia
Date of Death: 04-Sep-1993
Profession: pianist
Zodiac Sign: Libra 
About Sonya Hanke
- Sonya Helen Hanke (27 September 1933 – 4 September 1993) was an Australian pianist and educator. The daughter of Henry Aloysius Hanke, an artist, and Emily Mortimer, she was born in Hunters Hill in Sydney.
- Hanke was educated at North Sydney Girls High School and the New South Wales State Conservatorium of Music, receiving diplomas in performance and teaching in 1951.
- In the following year, she won the open piano championship at the Sydney Eisteddfod and a Pedley, Woolley, McMenamin Trust scholarship.
- These funds enabled her to study at the Royal College of Music in London from 1953 to 1956; she received the Hopkinson Gold Medal for piano playing in her final year.
- She subsequently studied at the Accademia Musicale Chigiana in Siena with the help of a scholarship from the Italian government.
- Hanke also studied at the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome.
- She performed in Italy, Switzerland, France, Germany, Britain, Israel and the United States.In 1959, she married Aldo Lucchetti, an agricultural scientist.
- The couple later separated.She returned to Australia in 1974 and joined the keyboard department at the New South Wales State Conservatorium of Music in 1977, retiring in 1992.
- Her students included Kathryn Selby, David Howie, Lisa Moore, Corey McVicar and Michael Kieran Harvey.She was an examiner for the Australian Music Examinations Board.
- She was known for her performances of music by Franz Liszt and contemporary Italian composers.
- In 1980, she became founding president of the South Pacific Liszt Society.Hanke died in Sydney at the age of 59, of breast cancer.
Read more at Wikipedia