Dame Nellie Melba Scholarship

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]

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.

• 1916 Doris L. Leech[5] 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
• 1937 Jean Love
• 1940 Patricia Hill
• 1941 Sybil Welley
• 1943 Elsie Morison
• 1946 Beryl Jones (declined) Sylvia Biddle (accepted)
• 1949 Joyce Simmons[11]

Melba Memorial Conservatorium of Music

(from 1956 the renamed Albert Street Conservatorium)

may include

• Victor Olof, violinist
• Patrick Roberts, violinist

Melba Opera Trust

Took over from Melba Memorial Conservatorium in 2008

• 2009, 2010 Stephanie Gibson[12]
• 2010 Janet Todd[13]

2010 Jacqueline Porter[12]

• 2011, 2012 Lauren Fagan[12]
• 2013 Emily Edmonds[12]
• 2014, 2015 Jade Moffat[12] mezzo-soprano[14]
• 2016, 2017 Zoe Drummond[15][12]
• 2018 Jessica Harper[12] soprano[16]
• 2019 Tessa Hayward[12][17]
• 2020 Rebecca Hart[12] mezzo-soprano[18]
• 2021 Katherine Allen[12]

Artists claimed to have won a Melba scholarship, for which no further information has been found, include

• Dora Labbette "studied with Lisa Lehmann on a Melba Scholarship" — Oxford Reference
• Mabel Gibson
• Anona Winn (born Anona Edna Wilkins)