Winifred Christie


Winifred Christie was a British pianist and composer best known as an advocate of the Moór-Duplex piano. She was born in Stirling, Scotland.

The Moór-Duplex piano

Winifred Christie spent a significant portion of her career promoting the Moór-Duplex piano, a double keyboard with a coupler between the two manuals, invented by Christie’s husband, Hungarian pianist, inventor, and composer Emanuel Moór. The Moór-Duplex aided in the playing of octaves, tenths, and even chromatic glissandos. The piano makers Steinway, Bechstein, and Bösendorfer all put the mechanism into their instruments. Christie performed on the instrument frequently in Europe and the United States and published a manual of technical exercises for the instrument.

Recordings

Christie also recorded selectively for the Aeolian Vocalion and Winner recording labels.

World Première Performances

In concert, Christie premiered Edgar Bainton’s Concerto-Fantasia and, in New York, on February 23, 1916, the piano version of Charles Tomlinson Griffes' "The White Peacock" at New York's Punch and Judy Theatre.
In 1946, Christie founded and endowed the in London, England with a gift of ₤10,000 as a memorial to her late husband.
She died, aged 82, in London, England.