[Dixielandjazz] Kennedy

[Robert S. Ringwald]

Listmates,

a couple weeks ago there was a mention of the violinist Nigel Kennedy.  I 
had met his sister Debbie Kennedy, a very fine bass player, in NY.  There 
was some contreversary regarding the fact that Debbie is from Australia & 
Nigel Kennedy is from England.

Below is the explanation from Debbie.  I have edited her comments to take 
out the personal comments made to me.

--Bob Ringwald

 (snip)
 Yes, I am the half-sister of a very well known
violinist : Nigel Kennedy, although I think he's better known in Europe &
Australia than in America. I'm amazed that you've heard of him - most
Americans that I've spoken to have never heard of him. We share a father,
but we have different mothers. Our dad, John Kennedy ( a 'cellist) was born
& raised in England, married a pianist named 'Cilla (short for Precilla),
they had Nigel, so Nigel was born (& raised) in England. Shortly after Nigel
was born (within a year) the marriage broke up, dad met my mum (Joan - who
was an opera singer) & they had my older sister called Laurien. She was born
in England, but approximately 5 years later they moved to Australia. A
couple of years after that I was born in 1965. As you can see, Nigel
remained in England with his mum so we didn't grow up together, but we did
meet in the early 1980's. We've seen each other a few times since then - I
even performed with him in some concerts in New Zealand back in 1991 when he
was doing a tour of Australia/New Zealand, & a couple of years later in 1993
in Worcestershire, England, because I was visiting my mum who'd moved back
to England with her new husband ( my dad passed away in 1980). So there you
have it! Nigel & I haven't seen each other since November 1999 - we kind of
got out of touch despite the fact that I've called him & left messages a
number of times over the years, as well as writing him Christmas cards on
quite a few occasions. So I don't know if or when I shall see him again.
I'll keep my eyes open & if I see that he's in New York anytime I'll go see
him. I do want to keep in touch with him. He's kinda crazy but he is one of
only 3 living people that I'm related to. ( my mum passed away in 1994), a
few years before dad died, he & mum broke up - he had a child with another
woman, so I have a younger half sister who is a wonderful person. Her name
is Erica & she plays the violin too - EXTREMELY well. So you see, it's just
Nigel, Laurien & Erica -everybody else has passed away (all grandparents) no
aunts or uncles (my dad had an older brother but he lived in the U.S. for
most of his life, & with me being in Australia for most of my life, we never
met - I don't even know if he's still alive!) So if you know of any tour to
the U.S. that Nigel might be doing sometime soon, please let me know! I'd
love to see him again after all these years!
(snip)