Mietta's song legacy

The Age April 16 2003
By John Slavin

After Mietta O'Donnell's tragic death in 2001, it might have been expected that without her luminous patronage the annual song contest that she and her partner Tony Knox initiated, would fade away. Felicitously, the award has been re-instigated and, last Sunday, the 2003 Mietta Song Recital Award (MSRA) was won by soprano Leah Thomas.

The prize, worth about $20,000, comprises various donations designed to assist a rising star from a variety of sponsors, including the Goethe Institut, the Tait Memorial Trust and the Istituto Italiano di Cultura.

Thomas also won the audience prize with her richly varied program of Grieg, Korngold, Duparc and Ginastera. The encouragement prize, sponsored by the Nino Sanciolo Memorial Scholarship Fund, was won by mezzo-soprano Joanne Goodman.

Such was the quality of performance that judges Richard Bonynge, Marilyn Richardson and Peter Burch announced that the MSRA committee prize for singer and accompanist would be set aside and, instead, the four pianists would share the prize. Chairman of the award committee John Pointer, announced that the MSRA would continue next year.