Anna Russell was a ‘top of the bill’ performer before she came to live in Australia. London Born Anna attended the Royal College of Music for five years, majoring in voice, piano, composition and cello.
With the outbreak of World War II, Anna and her mother moved to Toronto, Canada, where she performed on radio, entertained army personnel, wrote and composed her own material, and appeared with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra.
A year later she set off to conquer New York. She did! Major critics hailed her as one of the truly great artists of her generation. Anna starred in every important music festival in North America, and was a featured soloist with major symphonic orchestras. She appeared with the New York City Opera Company and starred in her own Broadway show.
On her second visit to Australia for the ABC Anna bought a large house on the waterfront at Sylvania Waters, Sydney in 1968.
In 1970 she toured NSW country towns with Colin Croft in their own show “The last gasp of Anna Russell with Resuscitation by Colin Croft” in which she performed the piece for which she was renowned “Wagner’s Ring of the Nibelung”. During a run in season at the Pocket Playhouse she presented me with (inscribed and autographed on the cover) a copy of her LP that includes her “Ring” piece. It is hilarious!
The last time I saw and talked to Anna Russell was in Brentano’s Bookshop in San Francisco where she was “holding court’ as a guest speaker. In her last years Anna lived at Rosedale near Bateman’s Bay where she died on 18th October, 2006, aged 94 years.
Norman McVicker's Budgee Budgee site 
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