Marina Prior holds a special place in Australian music, and with Vision Australia – and will be honoured for her support of children who are blind or have low vision.
Marina will receive a Vision Australia award for her continued support for the organisation through Carols by Candlelight.
The awards, first established in 2006, honour those who help to make a difference through their commitment to Vision Australia’s mission to ensure people who are blind or have low vision can live the life they choose.
Marina is preparing to sing at her 30th consecutive Vision Australia Carols by Candlelight on Christmas Eve – a rare honour among the musical fraternity.
This year is the 80th anniversary of the popular traditional Christmas event, which is televised nationally on the Nine Network.
Another Carols stalwart, Denis Walter, won a Vision Australia Award last year.
Apart from Marina’s extensive theatre career, she has released eight albums including three that reached the ARIA top 40 charts, had parts in five cast recordings of stage musicals and has appeared in a string of television programs as a singer and actor.
The soprano’s professional career dates back to September 1983, when she won the part of Mabel in the Victoria State Opera production of the Gilbert and Sullivan classic Pirates of Penzance.
She played Guinevere in the Australian production of Camelot in 1984, Jellylorum and Griddlebone in the Australian premiere production of Cats in 1985 and starred in many musicals through the 1980s before one of her signature roles, as Christine Daae in the Australian premiere production of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Phantom of the Opera, from 1990 to 1993.
Marina remains one of Australia’s foremost musical theatre performers with starring roles through the years in West Side Story, Show Boat, Guys and Dolls, Hello Dolly and many others. She was also queen of Melbourne’s Moomba festival in 1996.
She was not able to attend Vision Australia’s annual general meeting in Melbourne on Wednesday, where the award was announced, but will be handed to her on Christmas Eve.
“She will be performing at her 30th Carols buy Candlelight on Christmas Eve, which is an extraordinary achievement and an enormous contribution to us,” Vision Australia Board Chair Andrew Moffat said.