Dame Nellie Melba Scholarship may refer to any of several prizes awarded by the great soprano or in her name.
London
In 1911 Melba donated a scholarship of £30 tenable at the Guildhall School of Music for one year's tuition, at least partly as a tribute to her friend the conductor Landon Ronald, who had recently taken over as a principal of the School. The scholarship would be awarded by competition, open to sopranos aged between 16 and 22, of which there were around forty candidates, most already Guildhall students.[1] The Guildhall School of Music was at the time competing for students with the Royal Academy of Music and the Royal College of Music.
Among successful candidates were:
- 1912 Dora Briscoe[2]
- 1915 Dorothy Waring[3]
Melbourne
The first Australian Melba Scholarship, organised by the ANA, was a vocal scholarship of £30, of which £10 was provided by Dame Nellie and the remainder by Warrnambool local interests.[4]
- 1908 Elsie (later Elsa) Warman
- Albert Street Conservatorium
A scholarship, valued at 75 guineas, tenable for two years' tuition at the Albert Street Conservatorium, was inaugurated in 1916.
- Nathalie Muir won an exhibition and Ruby Croft an honorable mention, though subsequent reports claim both these contestants as prizewinners.
- 1919 Eileen Mary Starr[6]
- 1921 Marie Bremner[7]
- 1924 Alma O'Dea
- 1927 Victoria Wilson won "special Melba scholarship" later Mrs Schleebs
- 1930 Mary Pitman, later, as Margaret Pitman, embroiled in dispute over her mother's will.[8]
- Melba died in 1931 leaving, inter alia, £8,000 to the Albert Street Conservatorium to provide a continuing scholarship. Much was expended in settling points of law regarding the setting up and administration of the bequest.[9][10]
- Henceforth called Melba Bequest Scholarship, open to women of 17 years or older, any voice, trained or untrained.
- 1935 Hinemoa Rosieur (N.Z.)
- 1937 Jean Love (Vic.)
- 1940 Sybil Willey (Qld.)
- 1943 Elsie Morison (Vic.)
- 1946 Beryl Jones (declined) Sylvia Biddle (Qld.)(accepted)
- 1949 Joyce Simmons (Vic.)[11]
- 1952 Jean Munro (Qld.)
- 1958 Aldene Splatt (Vic.)
- 1962 Elizabeth Tippett (Vic.)
- 1965 Margot Cory (Vic.)[12]
- Melba Memorial Conservatorium of Music
- (from 1956 the renamed Albert Street Conservatorium)
may include
- Melba Opera Trust
- Took over from Melba Memorial Conservatorium in 2008
- 2010 Jacqueline Porter[13]
Elsewhere
Artists claimed to have won a Melba scholarship, for which no further information has been found, include