Romola Costantino

Romola Helen Louise Costantino OBE (also known as Romola Enyi)^[1] (14 September 1930 – November 1988^[2][3]) was a noted Australian pianist, accompanist and teacher, who also worked as a music, film and theatre critic.

Romola Costantino was the daughter of Napoleone Costantino (1889–1982), an Italian civil servant in Australia, and his Welsh-born wife Rosamond Lindner.^[4] She studied at the NSW Conservatorium of Music under Alexander Sverjensky.^[5] She was a graduate of the Royal College of Music in London, where her graduation performance was the Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini by Rachmaninoff.^{[citation needed]}

She gave many broadcasts and recitals for the ABC, most notably as an accompanist for musicians such as Ruggiero Ricci^[6] and Henryk Szeryng (on his 4th and last Australian tour in 1984).^[7]

Romola Costantino gave the first solo piano recital in the Sydney Opera House (10 April 1973; to an invited audience), and she participated in the first public performance in the Opera House's Music Room (with the Quartet and Walter Sutcliffe, under the auspices of Musica Viva Australia).^[8] She also formed a well known piano duo with Lance Dossor.

She was a member of the inaugural committee of the Accompanists' Guild of South Australia in 1983,^[9] and was President of the Guild from 1984 to 1986.^[10]

She recorded Schubert's Arpeggione Sonata with Robert Pikler, viola, and Mozart's Kegelstatt Trio with Pikler and Pamela Johnson, clarinet.^[11] She also recorded two Schubert piano sonatas that had been left unfinished by Schubert and completed by Walter Dullo.^[12] Other recordings include Ravel's La valse, and pieces by Debussy and Fauré.,^[13] as well as a Telemann trio sonata for the (long-defunct) AWA record label in which she played the clavichord.

She was a senior lecturer at the University of Sydney.^[14] She was also a music critic for the Sydney Morning Herald^[15] and a film and theatre critic for the Sun-Herald.^{[16][17][18][19]}

In 1971 Romola Costantino married George Enyi, an artist and sculptor,^[4] and sometimes used her married name Romola Enyi.^[1]

She was musical consultant for the film Between Wars (1974).^[20]

In the New Year's Day Honours of 1978, she was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire for her services to the arts.^[21]

Romola Costantino died in mid-November 1988, aged 58. Many of her programs and other papers are held at the National Library of Australia.^[22]

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