Eileen Joyce was born in 1912 in Zeehan, Tasmania. She attended the Loreta Convent in Perth, Australia. Percy Grainger noticed her talent and encouraged her to study piano abroad. She became a student of Matthay and also worked briefly with Schnabel. Joyce made many recordings during the 1930s and 40s that captured her remarkable technical fluency and instinctive musicianship. She performed incessantly in England during World War II, after which she withdrew from the concert stage for an extended period, only occasionally choosing to appear in public. She died in 1991.