Bertha Jorgensen
{{Short description|Australian violinist and concertmaster}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2023}}{{Use Australian English|date=April 2023}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Bertha Jorgensen
| honorific_suffix = {{Post-nominals|country=AUS|size=100%|MBE}}
| image = Bertha Jorgensen pi025624.tif
| caption = Jorgensen in the 1920s
| birth_name = Bertha May Jorgensen
| birth_date = {{Birth date|df=y|1904|05|17}}
| birth_place = Castlemaine, Victoria, Australia
| death_date = {{Death date and age|df=y|1999|01|11|1904|05|17}}
| death_place = South Caulfield, Victoria, Australia
| occupation = Violinist, concertmaster
| employer = Melbourne Symphony Orchestra
}}
Bertha May Jorgensen {{Post-nominals|country=AUS|MBE}} (17 May 1904 – 11 January 1999) was an Australian violinist and concertmaster of the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra (MSO).
Early life
Bertha May Jorgensen was born in Castlemaine, Victoria on 17 May 1904.{{Cite web |title=Bertha May Jorgensen |url=https://peopleaustralia.anu.edu.au/biography/jorgensen-bertha-may-32673 |access-date=2023-04-08 |website=People Australia}} She gave her first public performance there at age five, receiving "prolonged applause".{{cite news |date=7 December 1909 |title=Temperance Meeting |page=2 |newspaper=Mount Alexander Mail |issue=15,732 |location=Victoria, Australia |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article199616827 |accessdate=9 April 2023 |via=National Library of Australia}} She later travelled to Melbourne each week to study with Alberto Zelman.{{Citation |author1= |title=Symphony Leader Bertha Jorgensen Has Unique Job |url=https://trove.nla.gov.au/work/236574957 |journal=ABC Weekly |volume=9 |issue=39 |pages=5 |publication-date=1947-09-26 |access-date=9 April 2023 |publisher=Australian Broadcasting Commission}} She was educated at St Catherine's School from 1910 to 1919.{{Cite web |last=Musset |first=Kerrie |date=2020-12-11 |title=2020 Speech Day |url=https://www.stcatherines.net.au/news/2020-speech-day/ |access-date=2023-04-09 |website=St Catherine's School |language=en}}
Career
Moving with her family to Melbourne, Jorgensen joined Zelman's Albert Street Conservatorium Orchestra (later the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra) at age 15. When appointed concertmaster of the orchestra in 1923, she was the first woman to lead a professional orchestra in Australia.{{Cite web |title=Melbourne Symphony Orchestra |url=https://www.theaudiodb.com/artist/119224 |access-date=2023-04-08 |website=TheAudioDB.com}}
Jorgensen played and led the MSO under conductors, including Eugene Goossens, Walter Susskind, Rafael Kubelík, Malcolm Sargent and Thomas Beecham. Visiting conductors were "usually puzzled and slightly perturbed" to find a woman concertmaster. Otto Klemperer said that he was "perhaps doubtful" when he first met Jorgensen, acknowledging that she was "very good, yes as good as a man (better than some! . . . but this time I am NOT talking about Australian orchestras!)".{{Citation |author1= |title=Australia's Symphony Orchestras Compare with the Best Overseas |url=https://trove.nla.gov.au/work/236510324 |journal=ABC Weekly |volume=11 |issue=41 |pages=5 |publication-date=1949-10-07 |access-date=9 April 2023 |publisher=Australian Broadcasting Commission}}
In 1952 Jorgensen travelled to Europe to hear and observe many of the famous orchestras, including the Vienna Philharmonic. At the time she was one of only two women concertmasters or major orchestras in the world.{{Cite news |author1= |date=1954-02-20 |title=Bertha Jorgensen . . . In Search of Orchestras |work=ABC Weekly |volume=16 |publisher=ABC |issue=8 |location=Sydney |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-1548343236 |access-date=9 April 2023 |id=nla.obj-1548343236 |via=Trove}} In 1954 she considered Argentine conductor Juan José Castro to be the best musician the MSO had worked with, because "every member of the orchestra felt that he knew the whole score, and not merely his own part".
In addition to her work with the MSO she was a frequent performer on radio broadcasts from 1925 through to the late 1950s.{{cite news |date=1 May 1925 |title=Classified Advertising |page=24 |newspaper=The Argus (Melbourne) |issue=24,564 |location=Victoria, Australia |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article2112726 |accessdate=9 April 2023 |via=National Library of Australia}}{{cite news |date=13 June 1958 |title=Advertising |volume=32 |page=13 |newspaper=The Canberra Times |issue=9,505 |location=Australian Capital Territory, Australia |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article136299906 |accessdate=9 April 2023 |via=National Library of Australia}} She also taught at the Melbourne Conservatorium of Music, standing in for French violinist Jeanne Gautier when she was on tour.{{cite news |date=13 December 1944 |title="Stars of the Air" |volume=44 |page=1 |newspaper=Pittsworth Sentinel |location=Queensland, Australia |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article199836492 |accessdate=9 April 2023 |via=National Library of Australia}} At the end of WWII, Gautier returned to France, passing some of her pupils to Jorgensen and selling her 1780 François Fent violin.{{cite news |date=27 September 1954 |title=Melba Pulled Pigtails of Woman Conductor |page=4 |newspaper=Illawarra Daily Mercury |location=New South Wales, Australia |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article133680963 |accessdate=9 April 2023 |via=National Library of Australia}}{{cite news |date=14 October 1954 |title=Woman Leads Orchestra |page=5 |newspaper=Newcastle Morning Herald and Miners' Advocate |issue=24,342 |location=New South Wales, Australia |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article134100772 |accessdate=9 April 2023 |via=National Library of Australia}}
In the 1960 Queen's Birthday Honours Jorgensen was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire for "service as leader of the Victorian Symphony Orchestra".{{Cite web |title=Miss Bertha May JORGENSEN |url=https://honours.pmc.gov.au/honours/awards/1084369 |access-date=2023-04-08 |website=It's an Honour}}
Jorgensen's career with the MSO spanned 50 years.{{Cite news |last=Westwood |first=Matthew |date=2006-12-05 |title=Scoring a Musical Century |work=The Australian}} She retired as acting concertmaster on 17 May 1969.{{Citation |author1= |title=Music and Concerts |journal=Annual Report of the Australian Broadcasting Commission |issue=156 |pages=14 |publication-date=1969-06-29 |publisher=Australian Broadcasting Commission |issn=0313-3222}}
Death and legacy
Jorgensen died in South Caulfield, Victoria on 11 January 1999. She was 94.
The University of Melbourne awards an annual scholarship, named the Bertha Jorgensen Exhibition, to the "most outstanding student of the violin in third or fourth year".{{Cite web |last=Annab |first=Rachid |date=2019-03-25 |title=Bertha Jorgensen Exhibition |url=https://scholarships.unimelb.edu.au/awards/bertha-jorgensen-exhibition |access-date=2023-04-08 |website=The University of Melbourne |language=en}} Her alma mater, St Catherine's School, presents the Bertha Jorgensen Prize for Leader of the Orchestra annually.
References
{{Reflist}}
External links
- [https://www.abc.net.au/classic/programs/classic-90-for-90/bertha-jorgensen-on-otto-klemperer-1979/13773346 Jorgensen speaks of her experience with Otto Klemperer] to Margaret Hetherington of ABC Radio, 20 March 1979; re-broadcast 28 February 2022
- [https://twitter.com/MelbSymphony/status/1500969658375016449 Cellist Valerie Awburn speaks of Jorgensen]
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Category:Australian Members of the Order of the British Empire
Category:People from Castlemaine, Victoria
Category:Australian women classical violinists