Ethel Stark – Residence

Traduction à venir

Violinist, conductor, teacher, and musical pioneer Ethel Stark (1910-2012) devoted her life to the promotion of Canadian musical talent, and was a major advocate for women’s access to the world of professional classical music. Stark was the daughter of Austrian immigrants Adolph and Laura Stark, who arrived in Montreal in 1907. Her father was the president of the href=”Jewish Immigrant Aid Society”http://imjm.ca/location/1396 and her mother of the Ladies Immigrant Aid Society. Stark began her musical education playing violin. When she was only 13 years old, she auditioned for Oscar Morini in New York, who offered to to take Stark as his protegée to Europe. Because Stark’s mother thought she was still too young for touring, Stark remained in Montreal. Between 1928-34 she studied at the Curtis Institute in Philadelphia where she was the first Canadian citizen to receive a major scholarship.

In 1934, Stark became the first Canadian woman to perform as a soloist in a broadcasted program across the US. In 1940, she founded the first Canadian orchestra composed exclusively of women, the Montreal Women’s Symphony Orchestra, which she conducted until the late 1960s. Their first concert took place in the chalet on Mount Royal, and was attended by several thousand people. In 1947, the MWSO accomplished something no Canadian orchestra had done before: they performed at the prestigious Carnegie Hall in New York. Stark also lead a successful career as a conductor, helping to found and direct the New York Women’s Chamber Orchestra (1938-40), the Ethel Stark Symphonietta (1954-68) and the Montreal Women’s Symphony Strings (1954-65). She was a guest conductor for symphonies all over Canada and worldwide, including Israel and Japan.

Stark is a laureate of the Quebec Academy of Music, recipient of the Curtis diploma, fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, and the recipient of an honorary degree (LLD) from Concordia University. In 1976, she received an annual award given to outstanding Canadian personalities granted by the Concert Society of the http://imjm.ca/location/1199. She was made a Member of the Order of Canada in 1980. In 2003, she was made a Grand Officer of the National Order of Quebec.

In 2016, Montreal’s mayor, Denis Coderre, announced that the Claude-Jutras park would be renamed in Ethel Stark’s honour.

Compiled by Federation CJA and Abigail Borja Calonga.

Sources

403 Hôtel de Ville