Patient Pauline hits all the right notes
13/08/2025
The captivating music of Liszt and Debussy has echoed around the corridors of Cabrini Malvern in the past week or so as concert pianist and Cabrini patient Pauline Pidgeon practised for her upcoming recital in the hospital Chapel.
Pauline, an acclaimed pianist who has played with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra and is a Conservatorium of Music alumnus, fell and broke her pelvis late last month, but her Cabrini doctors uncovered something far more sinister after a series of scans.
“They found I have stage 2 lung cancer,” the award-winning pianist said. “I’m having radiation treatment and chemotherapy here at Cabrini, but fortunately they’ve found it’s only spread to one lymph node, so that’s good news.
“I guess God wants me to keep playing music and make more people happy.”
It’s hard not to be happy listening to Pauline play the piano and watching her fingers effortlessly glide over the keys.
Pauline, originally from regional Victoria, began playing piano before the age of three, and was recognised early as having an extraordinary gift.
“When I was growing up, I had no idea that my ability to play was anything special,” Pauline said. “It was a natural gift, but I took it for granted to be honest. I just went up to the piano and played by ear. But by the age of seven, I was playing for the school dances.”
Pauline’s mother died when she was 14, and she was raised by nuns at Sacred Heart Ballarat East, where they tried to advance her musical skills, but the child prodigy’s innate gift was already too far advanced.
“There was a man who came into the convent to assess me for my grade seven level examination, and he just wouldn’t go away until the nuns had agreed to allow me to go to Melbourne to study with him,” Pauline recalls. “The nuns wouldn’t hear of it, though, saying I was too young. He ended up coming back for later assessments and finally convinced them that I had to study, so I would go to Melbourne for lessons every fortnight when I was 16.
“He also put me forward to sit the Exhibition Scholarship at the University of Melbourne’s Conservatorium of Music, and I won it, but again the nuns wouldn’t allow me to leave, saying I was too scatterbrained. I sat the exam again the following year, at the end of Year 12, and was again accepted. It was absolutely amazing.”
Under the tutelage of the esteemed Roy Shepherd and Prof Max Cooke OAM, she played concerts, contested competitions, including the ABC’s Instrumental and Vocal Competition, and finished second in the inaugural National Chopin Competition. She made her debut as a soloist for the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra playing Beethoven Piano Concerto No. 4 in 1966 under the baton of Sir Bernard Heinze, and even accompanied acclaimed Australian ballerina Kathleen Gorham.
In 1967, Pauline married and moved to Germany, where she was lonely, isolated, and didn’t play the piano for three years. She later moved to South Africa, lecturing in piano performance at universities and performing recitals and broadcasts while raising her two children. She returned to Melbourne in 1987 and took up the Pianist in Residence role at Ballarat Grammar.
Since retiring to Melbourne, Pauline has generously gifted audiences, both large and small, her incredible music, including our Cabrini patients and staff.
Pauline, now a grandmother of three, has been buoyed by the reactions of those who’ve stopped to listen to her practising in the Chapel during her admission at Cabrini Malvern.
“Playing while I’m having my treatment is helping me,” she believes. “And I think people here at Cabrini are also enjoying listening.”
She was deeply touched by the reaction of the lucky congregation assembled at a Mass held in the Cabrini Chapel last week, when Pauline performed three hymns accompanying the Cabrini choir.
“It was marvellous,” Pauline said.
She was invited to play by Cabrini’s Manager of Pastoral and Bereavement Service, Michael Taylor.
“I heard Pauline at the piano, preparing for her upcoming recital,” Michael said. “I learned that she plays at St Cecilia’s Catholic Church, where Leesa Horrigan, our Director of Cabrini Choir, plays each Sunday. I explained that Leesa was on leave and that’s when Pauline graciously said that she’d be very happy to fill in. What a generous gesture from such an accomplished performer.”
Pauline, who is still a patient on 5 West, didn’t hesitate to offer her services – until she realised something significant.
“I didn’t have any clothes and would be wearing my spotted dressing gown, so I asked Michael if that would be OK, and that’s when he told me that that our gathering hymn for the Mass was Come as you Are,” Pauline laughed.
And so she came as she was. The wonderful Pauline went along to Mass in her spotted dressing gown and accompanied the choir during the very special service.
“It was the least I could do,” Pauline said. “Everyone here at Cabrini has been so wonderful to me – and it also gave me some valuable practice before my recital.”
Pauline Pidgeon playing at Cabrini Malvern Chapel for Cabrini’s Marg Stewart and Michael Taylor