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Antonia Brico 1902 - 1989

Antonia Brico of Denver, Denver County, CO was born on June 26, 1902 at Rotterdam, Netherlands, and died at age 87 years old on August 3, 1989 in Denver.

Antonia Brico

Antonia Louisa Brico - at birth

Denver, Denver County, CO 80210

June 26, 1902

Rotterdam, Netherlands

August 3, 1989

Denver, Denver County, Colorado, United States

Female

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Antonia Brico Antonia Brico (1902 - 1989)

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Antonia Brico's History: 1902 - 1989

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06/26

1902

Birthday

June 26, 1902

Birthdate

Rotterdam, Netherlands

Birthplace

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Ethnicity & Family History

Antonia Louisa Brico (Rotterdam, June 26, 1902 – Denver, August 3, 1989) was a Dutch-born conductor and pianist. Early life and education Born Antonia Louisa Brico to a Dutch Catholic unmarried mother in Rotterdam, Netherlands, Brico was renamed Wilhelmina Wolthuis by her foster parents. She and her foster parents migrated to the United States in 1908 and settled in California. On leaving Oakland Technical High School in Oakland in 1919 she was already an accomplished pianist and had experience in conducting. At the University of California, Berkeley, Brico worked as an assistant to the director of the San Francisco Opera. Following her graduation in 1923 she studied piano under a variety of teachers, most notably under Zygmunt Stojowski. In 1927, Brico entered the Berlin State Academy of Music and in 1929 graduated from its master class in conducting, the first American to do so. During that period, she was also a pupil of Karl Muck, conductor of the Hamburg Philharmonic Orchestra, with whom she studied for a further three years after graduation.
Professional Career

Career Following her debut as a professional conductor with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra in February 1930, Brico worked with the San Francisco Symphony and the Hamburg Philharmonic, winning plaudits from critics and the public. Appearances as guest conductor of the Musicians' Symphony Orchestra in Detroit, Washington, D.C., and other sites soon followed. In 1934, she was appointed conductor of the newly founded Women's Symphony Orchestra which, in January 1939 (following the admission of men), became the Brico Symphony Orchestra. In July 1938, Brico was the first woman to conduct the New York Philharmonic, and in 1939 conducted the Federal Orchestra in concerts at the 1939 New York World's Fair.[8] During an extensive European tour, in which she appeared both as a pianist and a conductor, Brico was invited by Jean Sibelius to conduct the Helsinki Symphony Orchestra. Brico settled in Denver, Colorado in 1942. Here she founded a Bach Society and the Women's String Ensemble. She also conducted the Denver Businessmen's Orchestra, which in 1968 became the Brico Symphony Orchestra, and in 1948 she became conductor of the Denver Community Symphony (later the Denver Philharmonic). She was conductor of the Boulder Philharmonic Orchestra from 1958-1963. She taught piano or conducting to such students as Judy Collins, Donald Loach, James Erb and Karlos Moser. Brico continued to appear as guest conductor with orchestras around the world, including the Japan Women's Symphony. A documentary film about Brico's life, entitled Antonia: A Portrait of the Woman, by director Jill Godmilow, with help from Brico's former student Judy Collins, appeared in 1974. In it, Brico candidly described her career-long struggle with gender bias that kept her from conducting more frequently. The film was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature and its popularity was partially responsible for invitations for Brico to conduct the Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra in sold-out concerts recorded by Columbia Records in 1975, and the Brooklyn Philharmonia in 1977.
08/3

1989

Death

August 3, 1989

Death date

Old Age (89)

Cause of death

Denver, Denver County, Colorado United States
Death location

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Obituary

Antonia Brico, 87, a Conductor; Fought Barriers to Women in 30s By Allan Kozinn Aug. 5, 1989 Antonia Brico, 87, a Conductor; Fought Barriers to Women in 30's The New York Times Archives Antonia Brico, a conductor who led her own orchestras in New York in the 1930s and who devoted her life to fighting prejudice against women in the orchestral world, died on Thursday after a long illness. She was 87 years old and had lived at the Bella Vita Towers, a nursing home in Denver, since 1988. Miss Brico, who was the subject of the 1974 film ''Antonia: Portrait of a Conductor,'' made her way in the male-dominated musical world largely through the force of her personality as well as her unshakable determination and a facility with both the standard orchestral literature and contemporary American works. Those qualities helped her break many barriers. In 1930 she became the first woman to conduct the Berlin Philharmonic. Seven years later she became the first woman to conduct an opera performance by a major New York company when she led the New York Hippodrome Opera production of Humperdinck's ''Hansel and Gretel.'' I n 1938, she made her debut with the New York Philharmonic, becoming the first woman to conduct that orchestra. She had mixed feelings about these distinctions, however. ''I do not call myself a woman conductor,'' she said in interviews. ''I call myself a conductor who happens to be a woman.'' Moved to the U.S. at 6 Miss Brico was born in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, on June 26, 1902. Her family moved to Oakland, Calif., when she was 6 years old. She intended to be a pianist at first, but in 1919, she enrolled at the University of California, where she took a liberal arts degree in 1923. During her student years, she supported herself by playing piano recitals and became interested in conducting while working as an assistant to Paul Steindorff, the director of the San Francisco Opera. In 1927, she went to Berlin to study conducting at the Berlin State Academy of Music. Among her teachers was Karl Muck, a former director of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, who was then conducting the Hamburg Philharmonic and who helped her obtain a coaching position at Bayreuth. When she made her Berlin Philharmonic debut in 1930, the critic of the Allgemeine Zeitung wrote that she ''possesses more ability, cleverness and musicianship than certain of her male colleagues who bore us in Berlin.'' Later that year she conducted the Los Angeles Philharmonic but failed to win a conducting post she sought there. After a successful tour of Poland and the Balkans, she returned to New York, where she made her debut conducting the Musicians' Symphony Orchestra. She Founded Her Own Miss Brico continued to seek a conducting post with one of the established orchestras in the United States, and when she did not succeed, she founded an ensemble of her own, the Women's Symphony Orchestra, which flourished from 1935 until 1939, when it became the Brico Symphony Orchestra. When her career in New York began to falter, around 1940, she moved to Denver, where she taught and was a guest conductor. In 1947 she became director of the Denver Businessmen's Symphony, which was later renamed the Brico Symphony. She held that post until she retired from conducting in 1985. She also directed the Denver Opera Association, the Women's String Orchestra, and the Boulder Philharmonic and was active as a teacher. One of her students in the 1950s was Judy Collins, who became famous as a folksinger in the late 1960s and who directed the ''Antonia'' film. Miss Collins's film rekindled interest in Miss Brico. When she returned to New York to conduct the Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra in 1975, her single scheduled concert sold out so quickly that a second was added. CBS recorded her concerts for release on LP. Her last New York appearances were in 1977 when she performed with the Brooklyn Philharmonia. There are no survivors.

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Antonia Brico lived 13 years longer than the average family member when died at the age of 87.

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