Fitzroy-born soprano Mary Conly arrived virtually unknown in London in 1902, aged 27. Within a year she was well on the way to widespread recognition as a first rate professional concert and oratorio singer. She was a “dramatic soprano”, her voice noted for its beauty and sweetness of tone, coupled with immense power.
For a decade she appeared regularly in London and across regional Britain as a soloist with the leading choral and orchestral societies of the day, in company with the best principal vocalists in the land.
In 1913 Mary finally returned to Australia and her house Koonung, Ivanhoe Parade, Ivanhoe. She continued to accept engagements as solo soprano in oratorio with the principal Melbourne choral societies, including from its inception in 1920 the Heidelberg District Musical Society (later renamed Heidelberg City Choir). Madame Conly also taught singing to private students at her home studio in Ivanhoe.
She suffered a stroke at her Ivanhoe home in August 1930 and died there a couple of days later, aged 56. She was survived by her husband John Jarrett (died 1934), whom she married in Melbourne in 1900. They had no children. Mary Conly’s admirers placed a monument over her grave in the Warringal Cemetery, Heidelberg in memory of “a brilliant artist and soprano of international fame”.
