Tribute to Mietta O'Donnell

Mietta O'Donnell was born on the 6th January 1950 and died on 4th January 2001. Her life was that of a unique creative artist.

Mietta O'Donnell was a woman who expressed her life by creating it as art - through the culinary arts, the performing arts, the arts of civilized living in the deepest sense. And she created a "Salon of the Arts", which was utterly Australian, utterly original.

At Mietta's the cream of Australian artistic life appeared - Yvonne Kenny to Debra Byrne, Flacco to David Malouf, Ronald Farren-Price to the Ormond College Choir - the artistic life of this country at its brilliant best - and at Mietta's "artists' salon" it happened week after week. Mietta had a special talent for seeing and nurturing the potential in others as well as simply, tirelessly, providing an outlet for talent and artistry.

A legacy Mietta O'Donnell left to Australia, and in particular to Melbourne, which it is hoped will continue many, many years after she - and we - are gone, is the recognition of the gift of Song. In particular - the Art Song - the expression in poetry and music of the human ability to transcend and simply celebrate the experience of what it is to live, to be human.

Mietta's appreciation of Lieder and Art Song was expressed in her support, management and patronage of the Song Recital Award. At the instigation of Michael Easton, Len Vorster, Tony Knox and Mietta this competition/award was presented in Melbourne for six years annually from 1995.

Now from 2003 the Song Recital Award will continue, bearing Mietta's name. A celebration of life in its most profound and joyous form - the Art Song, will find its continuance, in this part of the world, through the Mietta Song Recital Award.