Joan Urquhart, a much-loved pianist and accompanist throughout north Cumbria and beyond, has died aged 88
The eldest child of Matthew and Florence Savage, Joan’s long and eventful life began at Aikbank Farm, Calthwaite, in 1934.
From day one, Joan Savage was surrounded by animals and music. Soon enough she was feeding lambs, herding cats, milking goats and riding horses, while becoming immersed in her parents’ remarkable talents for playing piano, singing and harmonising.
Her own music education progressed at The Friends’ School in Brookfield, Wigton, where her popularity with fellow students may have been aided in part by her willingness to help complete their music theory homework.
There she built lasting friendships, and became an active, lifelong member of Wigton Old Scholars’ Association.
Joan was motivated, energetic, and hugely sociable. “Fellas would queue up for her outside the farmhouse,” recalled one relative, “then suddenly she’d be off out in the car with one of them!”
She was an enthusiastic Young Farmers’ Club member. At social events it became inevitable that Joan would find her way to any piano, to lead and accompany impromptu sing-songs.
Her farming background informed her early career as an animal nurse. She worked with veterinary practices in Carlisle and, for a time, in north London.
However, it was through musical theatre, rather than the operating theatre, that she met Sandy Urquhart, a newly qualified, music-loving veterinary surgeon from Glasgow, who had just arrived in Penrith.
Joan and Sandy became acquainted at the old Playhouse on Castlegate where Joan was accompanying the Penrith Players, with Sandy in the audience admiring her pianist skills.
Through their shared passions for music and animals, Joan and Sandy soon fell in love. They were married at St Mary’s Church, High Hesket, in August, 1969, then settled in Penrith.
As an experienced animal nurse, raised within the Cumbrian farming community, Joan was ideally suited to the role of “vet’s wife”.
On telephone duty she reassured anxious clients with her practical knowledge and sympathetic manner, and she frequently assisted her husband with out-of-hours emergency surgery.
Her household was typically full of pets – including five dogs at one time – many of which had been offered by clients to her husband as “gifts” requiring a loving home.
Meanwhile, Joan’s role as pianist and accompanist flourished for more than half a century. She was a well-known and widely admired resident accompanist with the Penrith Players, Penrith Savoyards, the Eden Singers, and various other local choirs.
Joan played at hundreds of concerts, musicals, pantomimes, weddings and funerals throughout the region. Over many years she was regular church organist at Plumpton, and later at Culgaith.
She accompanied countless singers and instrumentalists of all ages, and guided scores of students through their music examinations. As one put it: “I’ll always remember Joan for her incredibly positive attitude and enthusiasm for engaging young people with music.”
Joan was thrilled that music would become central to the lives, careers and pastimes of both of her sons, and indeed her two grandsons.
She always seemed frantically busy. At home, any spare time was spent arranging and transposing music, making cassette recordings of individual choir lines, or phoning vicars to chase up next Sunday’s hymn list.
The only time Joan would ever be found sitting still was on a piano stool, and preferably in front of an audience. This is where she was at her happiest.
Joan adored entertaining. She was a natural and charismatic performer with a strong sense of fun, and a playful streak of mischief.
At one veterinary reunion gathering, a friend recalls how Joan “commandeered a dusty piano in a pub near Loch Lomond … out of it she conjured spirited music, playing for the entire afternoon to us, and to the rest of the pub who seemed to enjoy the recital as much as we did!”
In 2009, Joan and Sandy moved from Fell Lane, Penrith, to Otters Holt, Culgaith; the village had been home to many of Joan’s ancestors.
Although the pace of life slowed, the music continued to thrive — Joan’s final public performance was, very proudly, at her nephew Roger’s wedding ceremony in spring, 2022.
In her later years Joan suffered from dementia. She was cared for by Sandy until his death in December 2020, and then by family and carers visiting her at home.
Despite the challenges of dementia, she remained tremendously sociable. She continued to gain much comfort, and to give much pleasure, in playing piano until just days before her death.
Joan is survived by her sons Alistair and Stephen, daughters-in-law Claire and Annika, and grandsons Ross and Joel.
Her funeral is to be held at Eden Valley Crematorium today, April 6, at 2pm, followed from 4pm by a combined celebration of both Joan and Sandy’s lives at the North Lakes Hotel, Penrith. All friends are welcome.
