Joan Hammond

Dame Joan Hilda Hood Hammond, (24 May 191226 November 1996) was an Australian operatic soprano, singing coach and golfer.

Early life Joan Hilda Hood Hammond was born and baptised in Christchurch, New Zealand. She was the daughter of Samuel and Hilda ( Blandford) Hood.

Golfer

Hammond won the women's junior golf championship for New South Wales in 1929, and the New South Wales Women's Amateur Championship in 1932, 1934, and 1935. When she became well known as a golfer, she started to sign her name as "Joan Hood Hammond", and newspaper articles would sometimes hyphenate this as "Joan Hood-Hammond"; however, she later dropped the "Hood".

Opera An encounter with Lady Gowrie, the wife of the then Governor of New South Wales, Lord Gowrie, made Hammond's dreams of studying in Europe possible. She was interviewed for the BBC radio programme Desert Island Discs in 1970.

Hammond retired to Australia. She became patron and a life member of the Melbourne-based Victorian Opera Company (since 1976, the Victorian State Opera – VSO), founded in 1962 by Leonard Spira. She was the VSO's artistic director from 1971 until 1976 and remained on the board until 1985. Working with the then general manager, Peter Burch, she invited the young conductor Richard Divall to become the company's musical director in 1972. She joined the Victorian Council of the Arts, was a member of the Australia Council for the Arts opera advisory panel, and was an honorary life member of Opera Australia. She was important to the success of both the VSO and Opera Australia.

Hammond embarked on a second career as a voice teacher after her performance career ended. In 1975, she was appointed head of vocal studies at the Victorian College of the Arts, a post she held until 1989. and Cheryl Barker, baritone Peter Coleman-Wright, and tenor Steve Davislim.

In 1983, her home at Aireys Inlet was destroyed by the Ash Wednesday bushfires and she lost all her possessions including the memorabilia of a lifetime.

Death

She died in 1996 in Bowral, New South Wales, aged 84, and was buried in the Bowral Cemetery.

Cheryl Barker, Joan Carden and John Bolton-Wood sang at Hammond's memorial concert at the Melbourne Concert Hall, broadcast on ABC Classic FM.

Awards and honours In the Queen's birthday honours of 1953, she was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) for her singing.

In the Queen's Birthday Honours of 1963 she was promoted to Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE). She received the Sir Charles Santley memorial gift from the Worshipful Company of Musicians, London, in 1970. Two years later, in the Queen's Birthday Honours of 1974, she was promoted to Dame Commander (DBE) of the Order of the British Empire for distinguished services to music.

Legacy In 1986, the Victoria State Opera created the Dame Joan Hammond Award with Moffatt Oxenbould as its inaugural recipient.

In 1989, the Hammond residence at Deakin University was opened by her and named in her honour. A wing of a Pymble Ladies’ College boarding house is also named for her.