Doris Vosper, known to many as ‘Dee’, was a transformative piano teacher in her day, a woman whose passion for music touched many people in and around Cambridge.
DORIS ‘DEE’ VOSPER: 12.10.1929 – 30.1.2025
Her death last month at 95 inspired a wave of memories from those whose lives she impacted. They remembered her zest for life and music, her much-loved Cavalier King Charles spaniels, her positivity and cooking abilities.
Dee’s musical journey started with piano lessons at age seven. She nurtured that early interest through music and singing at St Cuthberts in Auckland, later taking instruction with Sister Mary Leo Niccol, a New Zealand religious sister known for training some of the world’s finest sopranos, including Dames Kiri Te Kanawa and Malvina Major.
Dee was described as “a young girl with perfect pitch”.
Her abilities won her a place at the prestigious Royal College of Music in post-wartime London. She emerged four years later with a Bachelor of Music degree with distinction, having sung on numerous occasions with the college choir at the Royal Albert Hall.
New Zealand was always home, however, and she returned from the UK in 1950.
Dee was born in Helensville. Her father was a baker, her mother had previously worked as a jeweller in London – both continued working in those fields when they came to New Zealand and settled in Waimauku.
The family moved to Cambridge in 1940, so it was to Cambridge that Dee came back to after London, and here that she started her life as a piano teacher.
In November 1952, she married Jack Vosper, a young man she met at a dance in the Cambridge Town Hall.
They raised their children – Philip, Amanda and Sara – on a farm in the Piarere valley from where Dee continued teaching the piano. She also played for school and other productions and co-wrote the music and lyrics for operettas. Her ability to play by ear was legendary, and family speaking at her farewell service remembered sing-alongs around the piano, often well into the wee small hours.
Doris ‘Dee’ Vosper
Dee was known for much more besides her music. She found success in breeding Cavalier King Charles spaniels, was known for her fine baking and cooking, and a love of gardening. Her dignified demeanour and kind, forgiving nature endeared her to many and the friendships she forged were lifelong.
An entirely uncharacteristic talent emerged. It turns out Dee was a bit of a petrolhead, and even at age 75 was remembered for doing a spot of ‘hard-out paddock racing’.
She also made garments for tiny, premature babies, and will be remembered for her longtime involvement with the Cambridge Christmas Festival Society.
Dee spent many years working alongside the festival ladies, crafting Christmas items that were displayed or sold at the annual festival in the town hall. She had a particular fondness for the fact that the festival takings were donated to community groups in need.
Dee is survived by her three children, seven grandchildren and eight great-grandchildren.
