My Story

Born in Sydney, Australia, singing studies were undertaken with Helen Langton, Roland Foster OBE and Elizabeth Todd OAM;  in London with Gustav Sacher;  Munich with Ken Neate;  and Vienna with Frau Prosenc.  During my professional career, it was my privilege to give over four thousand classical and semi-classical concert, theatre, radio and television performances, with principal roles in oratoria, operas, musical comedies, and operettas. Dad played the saxophone and banjo, with Mum as his pianist.

My brother Garth was a talented musician, a drummer able to play any instrument he cared to pick up, my Grandmother, Jessie Rattray was a Queensland singer known as the Cairns Nightingale – singing at soirees only, because it was not considered ‘respectable’ to go ‘on the stage’ in those days – and my Aunt, Clarice Rattray had a beautiful contralto voice. My sister Betty was a great listener! Unfortunately, they have all passed on now. 

My family shared the joy of making music. In her day, my grandmother, Jessie Rattray was a singer known as the Cairns Nightingale – singing at soirees only, because it was ‘not respectable’ to go on the stage. Although Dad was Freight Manager with the Wil Wilhelmsen shipping company, he also had a band for years that performed at venues including the Sydney Trocadero. Dad played the saxophone and banjo, Mum was his pianist, and several musician friends made up the group. Mum was an excellent jazz pianist in her own right, often performing in Sydney. My brother Garth was a talented musician, able to play any instrument he cared to pick up, and frequently joining bands as their drummer. My aunt, Clarice Rattray had a beautiful contralto voice, and my sister Betty was a great listener! Throughout my childhood, friends sang and played their instruments around our piano once a week, and this nurtured my own deep love of singing.

At fifteen, my parents took me to Manila, Hong Kong and Japan where I broadcast over capital cities radios.  In later years I sang in Germany, Switzerland, Austria, New Zealand and America.  Concerts in England included London’s Royal Festival Hall, Wigmore Hall, Australia House and St. Martins-in-the-Field.

Theatre was my great love from the age of nine, when I sat on the steps and threw rosebuds to the two Gondoliers during the Savoyeurs’ amateur performances directed by, and starring my first sining teacher, Helen Langton.

I graduated to minor roles, then principal roles with Miss Langton, and branched out into other amateur productions. I left school at the age of fifteen in second year high school after winning a scholarship for a year to the Commonwealth Typist-in-Training School.

For the next eighteen months I worked as a stenographer to fulfil my bond. My radio career began at twelve years of age, with broadcasts as a singer and actress for the Australian Broadcasting Commission (ABC), 2SM and other Sydney radio stations, in shows like The Argonauts, with Mac and his entourage. Engagements with the ABC Education Department’s ‘Singing Together’ with Terry Hunt and Jeff Rushton continued for over twenty years.