Geoffrey Parsons; Accompanist

Geoffrey Parsons, an Australian pianist who accompanied many of the world’s leading singers, has died at 65.

Parsons died Jan. 26 of bone cancer, the Guardian newspaper reported.

Among the singers he accompanied were Margaret Price, Victoria de Los Angeles, Jessye Norman, Nicolai Gedda and Thomas Hampson.

Parsons studied at the New South Wales State Conservatory of Music and won the Australian Broadcasting Commission’s concerto competition in 1947.

He moved to England in 1950, accompanying the bass-baritone Peter Dawson.

In 1961, he made his Royal Festival Hall debut accompanying Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, one of his happiest partnerships.

“With Schwarzkopf, I just knew what she was going to do. It was a kind of fingertip alertness to what might be,” he once said.

Dame Janet Baker, an English mezzo-soprano who worked with Parsons, said he combined superb technique with hard work.

“Geoffrey was devoid of ego on the platform: He gave his artists ‘first place’ up there, so it was easy to share it with him,” Dame Janet wrote in the Daily Telegraph.