Honor McKellar

McKellar was the guest of honour at a Mothers' Day performance given by Lemalu in Dunedin in 2021. Lemalu has said of McKellar that he would not have a singing career without her: "I remember your boundless energy, patience, and instilling fun and joy in my music making. You always kept me grounded, you always kept me focussed ... every singing teacher subsequently is and was compared to you, my musical mother."

The university held a morning tea at their new Performing Arts Centre to celebrate McKellar's 100th birthday in November 2020.

In the 1989 Queen's Birthday Honours, McKellar was awarded the Queen's Service Medal for community service. In 2012 she was made a life member of the New Zealand Association of Teachers of Singing (NEWZATS).

In 1971 McKellar returned to Dunedin where she became the university's first executant lecturer in singing, being appointed the William Evans lecturer. It was through McKellar's pressure that the Music Department appointed a full-time pianist, Maurice Till. McKellar retired from her lecturing position in 1985 but continued to teach both privately and at the university. She recalled one of the highlights of her time at the university as staging operas in Allen Hall, with Professor Peter Platt, that were meant for full-size opera houses, later saying "Some of them must have been hilariously bad!".

When McKellar returned to New Zealand she was one of the original singers for Donald Munro's New Zealand Opera Company. During the 1960s, she returned to the UK as a session musician, and sang in the Glyndebourne Chorus, Opera For All, and the John Alldis Choir.

McKellar graduated with a BA from the University of Otago in Dunedin in 1942 and a MusB in 1944. She would illustrate examples at the weekly public music class given by the head of the Music Department, Victor Galway. From 1946 to 1949, McKellar studied at the Royal Academy of Music in London. During her studies, she took part in the production of the opera The Poisoned Kiss by Vaughan Williams, which she regarded as her first proper stage experience.

Winifred Honor McKellar QSM (born 10 November 1920) is a New Zealand former mezzo-soprano opera singer and singing teacher, and was the first full-time lecturer in singing at the University of Otago in Dunedin. Her students have included Jonathan Lemalu, Patrick Power and Matt Landreth. In 1989 she was awarded a Queen's Service Medal for services to music, and in 2012 she was made a life member of the New Zealand Association of Teachers of Singing.

McKellar was born in Dunedin on 10 November 1920. Her mother was musical although McKellar does not recall hearing her sing. McKellar was taught piano by Miss Allen, and dancing by Dorothy Dean. At 16, she had her first singing lesson, from Dunedin musician Ida White.