This book is respectfully dedicated to the memory of

Sheila Prior, AM, BEM, DLJ

1914–2004

Sheila Prior devoted her life to working in an honorary capacity for various community organisations and for the arts. During a thirty-two-year tenure as Founding President and Chairperson of the Australian Opera Auditions Committee Inc., Sheila was instrumental in raising more than two million dollars. These funds were used to support talented Australian singers, conductors and instrumentalists.