Mary Miller, born December 22 1926, was a promising young soprano in her prime when she won the coveted Herald Sun Aria in 1948.
Her story is a beautiful and inspiring one but was all too brief. A quote from the newspaper in 1945 “There must be few better known or more popular artists in Melbourne today than the brilliant young soprano, Mary Miller, who has announced her first public recital at the Assembly Hall on 24th November”
Her reviews included “The young soprano, already very popular… has intelligence, temperament, and a very flexible voice that is gaining in quality and color.”
“After a virtual withdrawal for a period to add artistry to an already very popular soprano talent, the young singer Mary Miller on Saturday night offered the first fruits of her abnegation in an Assembly Hall recital, and they were very good fruits.”
“The popular soprano is favored with beautiful tone and charm of manner. She has flexibility and compass, enabling her to carry off coloratura arias with very fair success.”
During this recital, she was accompanied by Margaret Schofield, the very same Margaret that our Celebrating Chopin and new Grand Schimmel is to be named in honor of!
Many concerts and accolades later, including ‘Music for the People’, ‘Food for Britain Appeal’, ‘Carols by Candlelight’ and countless recitals and charity work, Mary entered the 1948 Aria and won with 95 points, the highest marks ever attributed to a winner at the time. Linda Phillips says of the winner “of outstanding beauty for its poise and coloratura brilliance, her voice floated in pure even tones from quiet descriptive passages in Thomas’s Mad Scene from Hamlet to the linking waltz theme, the Naive Swedish folk air and the final cadenzas of jewel-like brightness. Her delicious singing of the Bell Song from Lakme by Delibes again illustrated true coloratura flights allied to interpretative charm”
John Sinclair, the Herald Music Critic said “Last night a capacity Town Hall audience heard Mary Miller, a young Melbourne soprano, win the richest and most important vocal contest in Australia, the Sun Aria prize. Miss Millers’ flexible and velvet-smooth coloratura voice is of exception beauty and she used it last night skillfully, musically, and with great delicacy”
Mary was quoted as saying “I was so nervous. I never dreamed I could win” She attributed her success to her music teacher, Miss Pauline Bindley and added “I started with Miss Bindley nine months ago. She trained me specially for the Sun Aria. I could never thank her enough”
Sadly, after winning the Aria in October, Mary was never to perform in public again. One month later, she had been about to begin her role as The Queen of the Night in Mozart’s The Magic Flute at the Princess Theatre but was in hospital and too unwell to perform. Sadly, it was discovered she was riddled with cancer, and she never recovered, dying January 08 1949 having just reached the age of 23 years.
Even at such a young age, she was well known and loved throughout the nation, and her death widely felt. A service of thanksgiving and remembrance was held on January 16 1949, and Wesley Church capacity was over-flowing, with some having to be turned away. Dr Benson said “if the passing of this lovely girl can rouse the nation from it’s apathy (towards cancer) and awaken us to our responsibility for sufferers, she will not have died in vain”.
A memorial concert was arranged in her honor at the Melbourne Town Hall on Thursday April 7th, with the proceeds used to endow in Mary Miller’s name a four-bed ward at the Royal Melbourne Hospital. Vocalists donating their talent to this concert included Joan Arnold, Maureen Boyce, Joyce Macartney, Gladys Moncrieff, Bettine McCaughan, Ailsa McKenzie, Nance Osborne, John Dudley, William Laird, Robert Simmons, Charles Skase and Anthony Strange.
A Dedication ‘To Mary’ with acknowledgments to Australian Musical News
Sweet singer with the gentian eyes,
The flaxen hair; how fair the guise
You chose for your brief shining here;
A star, swift passing, that drew near.
Serene your gaze, and bright the brow
We had with laurels crowned ere now;
But who can say you have not met
Yet brighter crowns than earth has set.
Far your winged feet in former days
Have sped Elysium’s halcyon ways,
And with the pipes of Pan your trills
Re-echoed round Olympian hills.
To that, O spirit rare, return,
And to the songs that praises earn
Add yours, that they may linger e’er
In worlds so pure, so young, so fair.
