“For her outstanding contribution to music, her achievement as a concert pianist and as an outstanding teacher of students who have gained international reputations.”

Madame Alice Carrard was born to Irma and Max Balint in Budapest, Hungary in 1897. Irma Balint began to teach her daughter to play the piano when she was nine years old. Recognising Alice's exceptional talent, her mother sent her to study music under Stefan Thoman at the Franz Liszt Academy in Budapest. Alice was a very disciplined student and, at seventeen, attained her diploma to teach music. Later, she studied under Bela Bartok, gaining great inspiration in terms of sound and phrasing. She then spent seven years learning from Leo Weiner, whom she describes as the "greatest master" she ever met in her life. 

At twenty-one Alice's debut as a concert pianist in Budapest and Vienna led to a major concert career touring extensively through the then Austro-Hungarian Empire and Western Europe. She appeared with the leading Hungarian conductor Ferencsik, played sonata recitals with Teri Gosztonyi, chamber music with the Lener Quartet and sonatas with Eugene Ormandy, who later became the conductor of the Philadelphia Orchestra. Alice received wide acclaim with critics paying homage to her "finely developed technique and inexhaustible energy." She was described in the Neues Politisches Volksblatt as "one of Hungary's best pianists."

Due to the political climate in Europe, Alice left with a light orchestra to play in the Far East, giving performances in Indonesia and Malaysia. It was in Malaysia that Alice met her husband, Louis Carrard, a Swiss-born electrical engineer. They had a son, George Sandor, and lived in Malaysia for four years. Alice and her son first came to Perth in 1941 for a holiday, but when Singapore and Malaysia were invaded by the Japanese in December the same year, Alice decided to stay in Perth. She quickly grew to love Perth and has lived here ever since. As Louis Carrard caught the last boat out of Singapore to join Alice in Western Australia, the boat was bombed. Louis

Carrard was interned in Sumatra for the duration of the war. During this time, Alice heard no news of her husband's where- abouts. When the war ended, he came to Perth but returned to Malaysia to work.

During the war years Alice Carrard gave recitals for the Red Cross and other wartime charities. She also performed regularly for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation and forged a distinguished career both as a performer and teacher. In 1946 she toured Australia performing works by all the great composers and introduced a range of new music to Australian audiences. Madame Alice Carrard was the first person in Western. Australia to perform several Bartok pieces, including the Third Piano Concerto. Madame Carrard declares that "performing is (her) first love definitely" and was giving spellbinding performances until two years ago when she broke her shoulder. She performed at a concert in honour of her ninety-fifth birthday at the Western Australian Conservatorium of Music, where the overflowing audience rose spontaneously to its feet. Madame Carrard also performed at a "Bartok Portrait Concert" at the Conservatorium, celebrating her link with the Hungarian pianistic tradition and Bartok's music which has played an important part in her teaching and recital repertoire. Likewise, she gave a fine performance of Bartok at a concert to celebrate her ninety-ninth birthday in the Fremantle Town Hall. It is no surprise that Madame Alice Carrard has affectionately been called the Grand Lady of Perth Music.

Madame Alice Carrard was a music examiner for the University of Western Australia for over twenty-five years and has imparted her knowledge and skills to generations of talented students. She is proud of her pupils, many of whom have achieved international success. They include David Helfgott, Margaret Pride, Jan Helsham, Katie Zukov and Yasuko Toba. While strict, she is well loved by her students

and maintains an active interest in their lives, music and careers. In 1975, Madame Carrard was awarded the MBE in recognition of her services to music teaching and performance in Western Australia. From the Franz Liszt Academy she has received both the Gold and Diamond Diplomas for over fifty years of teaching excellence.

Madame Carrard has made an overwhelming personal contribution to Australian musical life. Her dedication to preserving the Hungarian pianistic tradition and her passionate enthusiasm for music shines through with unparalleled force. She says:

If you love music like I do, you have to give your life to it. 

Her long and passionate affair with music is matched only by her enthusiasm for life which she shares with her two grand- daughters. Revered nationally as a performer and a teacher, Madame Carrard touches the lives of all those who have had the pleasure of meeting her or hearing her play. She says, "The story of music is just like a book for me... You create the words, you create understanding that the composer wants. It is a very complicated language." Madame Alice Carrard has given Western Australia an extraordinary and precious chapter in its music history.

Reference;
Madame Alice Carrard, Oral History, JS Battye Library of Western Australia, Interviewer, Christina Brockman, 1996, p1. For more information on Leo Weiner, see Georg Solti, Solti on Solti: A Memoir, UK, Vintage, 1998. Alice Carrard, Soundscapes, October-November 1995, p22. ibid. Madame Alice Carrard, Oral History, JS Battye Library of Western Australia, Interviewer, Christina Brockman, 1996, p23.

The West Australian, Friday, April 10 1987. Madame Alice Carrard, Oral History, JS Battye Library of Western Australia, Interviewer, Christina Brockman, do 1996 p 12-13.