Please note that the content of this book primarily consists of articles available from Wikipedia or other free sources online. Valda Aveling OBE (16 May 1920 21 November 2007) was an Australian pianist, harpsichordist and clavichordist. Her repertoire was very wide, including composers as diverse as William Byrd, Jan Sweelinck, Sergei Rachmaninoff and Béla Bartók. Valda Aveling was born in Sydney, the youngest of four girls and a boy, and showed great talent at an early age. At 16 she received teaching and performing diplomas from the NSW Conservatorium of Music, then left for Britain to study harpsichord and clavichord with Violet Woodhouse. She returned in 1938 to make her piano debut under Malcolm Sargent, at the Sydney Town Hall. In one concert in Manila, she played Tchaikovsky''s Piano Concerto No. 1, Rachmaninoff''s Piano Concerto No. 2 and Beethoven''s Emperor Concerto. She later came to dislike Beethoven''s music, saying there was "nothing light in it".