Cecile Stevens

Cecile Ann Stevens 'Molloy' Licentiate of the [Royal Academy of Music|LRAM] was an Australian violinist.

Early life

Stevens was from Sydney, daughter of composer and organist John Michael Stevens and Kathleen Mary Noonan Stevens. As a child musician, she was conductor of the Parramatta Convention Orchestra in Sydney. She won a scholarship to attend the Royal Academy of Music in London.

Career

Stevens played a Nicola Amati violin, a gift from her father. She played for Princess [Mary Adelaide of Cambridge|Princess Mary] and entertained wounded troops while performing in Great Britain during World War I, sometimes sharing the bill with Lena Ashwell. She made a two-year tour of English vaudeville theatres.
She toured in Canada and the United States after the war, and toured in Australia and New Zealand in 1921. "Miss Cecile Stevens is a talented young violinist with a distinguished grace and charm characteristic of her wonderful ability," noted a New Zealand newspaper. She gave radio concerts and made recordings, including a film, in the United States in 1922. She returned to London in the early 1920s, and played in London theatres. After she married in 1929, she moved to East Africa.

Personal life

Stevens married Michael Aloysius Molloy in 1929, in London. She lived with her husband, an Irish veterinary officer, in Tanganyika Territory, at least until he retired in 1950.
Stevens died in Sydney on 9 October 1970 and was survived by her husband.