John Lemmoné

John Lemmone (22 June 1861 – 16 August 1949) was an Australian flute player and composer who was largely self-taught and who at the age of 12, paid for his first flute with gold he had panned himself on the goldfields at Ballarat. He had an international career as a soloist, and accompanied well-known singers such as Adelina Patti, Nellie Melba and Amy Sherwin, the pianist Ignacy Jan Paderewski, and the violinist Pablo de Sarasate. Later in his career he became Nellie Melba's manager.

Early life Lemmone was born in Ballarat to a Greek immigrant, John Lemon (originally Lamoni) and his English-born wife Mary. It was a musical family and the boy learned tin whistle before progressing to fife, playing in the local Golden City drum and fife band. By the age of 12 he had found enough gold on the Ballarat goldfields to buy his own flute. A young singer by the name of Helen Mitchell (later Nellie Melba), who was later to form a close professional association with Lemmone, sang at the same concert.

International career In 1887 and 1889, having changed his name, Lemmone toured Australia and Asia with soprano Amy Sherwin. He married Isabella Stewart in 1889 and over the next few years he again toured, with singers Janet Patey, Allan James Foley and Charles Santley, and violinist Pablo de Sarasate.

Lemmone renewed his acquaintance with Nellie Melba in London in 1894. By this time, Melba was very well known in Europe, having sung at Covent Garden in 1888 and the Metropolitan Opera in 1893, and his contact with her further advanced his career. He accompanied her with flute obbligatos at fashionable social gatherings and at Queen's Hall, London.

Lemmone continued to perform as a soloist and even as late as 1938, he performed on radio.

Radcliff flute

Like John Amadio after him, Lemmone played a Radcliff flute that sounded like a Boehm flute but which had a different fingering system. When he died, his flute came into the possession of his friend and onetime student, the flautist and educator Victor McMahon. In turn, McMahon gave the flute to the National Film and Sound Archive in 1986. It is now held at the Arts Centre Melbourne, Performing Arts Collection.