Ethel Smyth (1858-1944)
Ethel Mary Smyth was a composer, conductor, writer, and activist in the women’s suffrage movement in England. Raised during the Victorian era, she challenged societal norms that confined women to traditional roles and fought for her right to receive a musical education, present her works, and have them published. From an early age, Smyth demonstrated […]
Liza Redfield (1924-2018)
American Conductor Liza Redfield was an American conductor, pianist, and composer, best known for making history in 1960 as the first woman to serve as the full-time conductor of a Broadway pit orchestra. She achieved this milestone when she was appointed music director for The Music Man during its original Broadway run. A piano prodigy, […]
Josephine Weinlich (1848-1887)
Slovak-Austrian Conductor Josephine Weinlich, born in 1848 in Dechtice (now part of Slovakia), was the daughter of Franz and Josepha Weinlich. Under her father’s guidance, she learned to play the violin and piano. Her father also ran a folk-singing society, and starting in 1865, Josephine accompanied singers on the piano at Viennese restaurants. In 1868, […]
Lucy Scarbrough (1927-2020)
American Conductor Lucy Ardans Scarbrough, born in Encino, New Mexico, was the youngest of ten children. Her musical journey began with piano lessons from her mother, followed by studies with the esteemed American pianist and teacher Silvio Scionti, and later the Russian pianist Maurice Lichtman. As a teenager, she developed a deep passion for the […]
Margaret Hillis (1921-1998)
American Conductor Margaret Hillis was born in Kokomo, Indiana, and began studying piano at the age of five. Her conducting debut came early, as she served as assistant conductor of her high school orchestra while still a student. After pausing her education for two years during World War II, she earned a Bachelor of Music […]
Helen Quach (1940-2013)
Vietnamese Conductor Helen Quach was a trailblazing symphony conductor born in Vietnam. In 1958, as a second-year student at the New South Wales Conservatorium of Music, she became one of the first two women to receive a scholarship to study with renowned conductor Nikolai Malko, who was then leading the Sydney Symphony Orchestra. In 1967, […]
Avril Coleridge-Taylor (1903-1998)
English Conductor Gwendolen Avril Coleridge-Taylor was an English pianist, conductor, and composer, and the daughter of composer Samuel Coleridge-Taylor and Jessie Walmisley. She composed her first piece, Goodbye Butterfly, at age 12. In 1915, she won a scholarship to Trinity College of Music, where she studied composition, piano, orchestration, and conducting under esteemed teachers, including […]
Iris Lemare (1902-1997)
English Conductor Iris Lemare began her musical journey studying organ under George Thalben-Ball, earning the Dove Prize for her talent. However, she later shifted her focus to timpani. During the early 1920s, she attended Bedales School and trained at the Dalcroze Institute in Geneva. From 1925 to 1929, she studied at the Royal College of […]
Ruth Gipps (1921-1999)
English Conductor Ruth Gipps was a child prodigy who excelled in performance competitions, often competing against much older participants. In 1937, she enrolled at the Royal College of Music, where she studied oboe under Léon Goossens, piano with Arthur Alexander, and composition with Gordon Jacob, later continuing her studies with Ralph Vaughan Williams. Gipps was […]
Anda Kitschmann (1895-1967)
Austrian-Polish Conductor Anda Kitschmann, the daughter of a renowned Lviv theater director and the librettist and translator Adolf Kitschmann, holds the distinction of being the first female conductor in Poland. She became the first Polish woman to study conducting, graduating with a gold medal from the Conductors’ School at the Academy in Vienna in 1911. […]