The following is extracted from Volume III of the 1986 edition of South African Music Encyclopedia (J.P. Malan, ISBN 0 19 570363 4)
SALINE KOCH, soprano, born in Vryburg (South Africa)
Beginning in 1936 Saline Koch studied at the South African College of Music under Ivy Angove (violin), John Andrews and Adelheid Armhold (singing) and in 1940 was awarded the College licenciates as a teacher and performer for violin and singing.
While still a student, she took part in opera performances presented by the College of Music, but her professional career started in 1945 when she played Micaela in John Connell's Afrikaans production in Johannesburg of Bizet's Carmen. Until the Johannesburg opera seasons were discontinued in 1953, she played leading roles and thereafter sang in the productions of PR Kirby and J Trauneck, the National Opera Association and the South African Opera Federation. During the Union Festival in 1960 she had the leading part in the premiere of John Joubert's opera Die Droogte (The Drought).
Since 1963 she has been living in Cape Town where she has participated in the opera productions of CAPAB and has understaken educational tours to country areas with programmes ranging from folk music to opera in costume. Her repertoire includes some 22 leading parts of which she regards La Traviata, La Boheme, Madama Butterfly, The Consul and The Bartered Bride as the most significant.
Saline Koch has also had a career as a radio and concert singer and often performed as a soloist in oratorios and symphonic works. The annual oratorio festivals in Port Elizabeth (1951-55) and in Johannesburg have been among the highlights of her career. From 1970 to 1974 she was in charge of the sheet music section of Darter's Cape Town, after which she became the Music Librarian of the CAPAB orchestra in the Nico Malan Theatre.
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The following is taken from a newspaper article (publication unknown, date probably August or September 1976)
SINGER KEEPS LINKS WITH MUSIC
A restful room in the basement of the Nico Malan Theatre Centre houses the Orchestral Library and is also the daytime home of Harry Hamblin, the librarian, and his assistant, Saline Dunning. Mrs Dunning was better known to the opera public as Saline Koch and did valuable pioneering work in this art form. And had World War II not forced Saline to return home from her successful audition at Sadler's Wells, who knows where her career might have ended? But this is jumping the gun.
Saline started singing while at the UCT College of Music - her love of song soon pushed her violin studies into the background. A pupil of Madame Armhold, Saline began to appear in opera at the College under the leadership of Dr William Pickerill. At the end of her course Saline was awarded the Van Hulsteyn Bursary and went to England. Before she could take up an appointment at Sadler's Wells, war was declared and Saline decided to concentrate on singing in her home country.
In Johannesburg, Saline appeared regularly at the Empire and later at the Alexander Theatre with Jeremy Schulmann conducting the SABC Symphony Orchestra. In those pre-Arts Council days, it is interesting to note this lyric soprano's repertoire: Olympia, Gretel, Papagena, Violetta, Micaela, Madama Butterfly, and Mimi. The latter two roles were sung at the newly opened Pretoria Aula and La Boheme marked the debut of tenor Gé Korsten as Rodolfo. Saline also sang opposite Frederick Dalberg in Lortzing's Der Wildschütz. Today she and Fred (who is CAPAB's vocal advisor) are reunited at the Nico Malan - he has a studio along the passage.
Many of the operas in which Saline appeared were translated into Afrikaans by Gideon Roos and then later also presented in its original language.
Saline's output as a broadcaster was also prolific: concerts, recitals, operas... and she was frequently seen on the concert platform. One of her fondest memories is of the Verdi Requiem she sang with conductor Walter Susskind. In the Cape Saline undertook major tours for the newly-formed CAPAB opera company, appearing in works such as Madama Butterfly, Cosi Fan Tutte and Menotti's The Old Man and the Thief. In the company's first full-scale production, The Bartered Bride, she alternated the title role with colleague Nellie du Toit.
Saline has a great love for Menotti's music. In 1954 she sang Magda in the first South African performance of The Consul, opposite Gregorio Fiasconaro. This production was a highlight of the Durban centenary celebrations.
Added to an abiding love for singing is Saline's love for travel. "That was what finally influenced me to stop singing. I decided to take a full time job (as Head of Sheet Music at Darter's) and found that I couldn't maintain the same standard singing. You can't work all day, running a business, and then expect to be a professional singer as well. But I never got away from music. We supplied schools, orchestras, all kinds of musicians... it really kept me in touch."
Her job also facilitated Saline's travels. She has been almost all over the world. Highlights include the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires ("such a big orchestra"), and a performance of Le Nozze di Figaro in Turkey... "they were singing in no less than three languages!". France is her next target and she is avidly studying the language.
Two years ago the job in the Orchestral Library at the Nico Malan fell vacant and Saline immediately applied. "I've been in opera my whole life - so now I am really back where I belong. I hear music around me all the time and I am constantly in touch with the artists... this is where my heart is."
