Florence Hood

Florence was born in Melbourne, a grand-daughter of John Hood M.P. and the youngest daughter of (later Sir) Joseph Henry Hood (1 June 1846 – 28 January 1922), judge of the Supreme Court of Victoria,{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article4617094 |title=Sir Joseph Hood |newspaper=The Argus (Melbourne) |issue=23,501 |location=Victoria, Australia |date=29 November 1921 |accessdate=27 May 2016 |page=6 |via=National Library of Australia}} and his wife Georgina, née McKee, later Lady Hood OBE (c. 1849 – 13 August 1937), and brought up at their large home "Helenslea", in Caulfield, Victoria.

She studied piano and violin under Hermann T. Schrader, whom she remembered with affection and gratitude. Professor Schrader later said of her, with his typical modesty:

"... she came to me as a young girl, and made such amazingly rapid progress with her piano studies that before very long I launched her upon the violin. Then, within a few years, I realised that I could not teach her any more. She knew as much as I did ..."{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article171897853 |title=Silence Where Music Reigned |newspaper=The Advocate (Melbourne) |volume=LXVII |issue=4223 |location=Victoria, Australia |date=26 July 1934 |accessdate=26 May 2016 |page=6 |via=National Library of Australia}}

She went on to study in London under August Wilhelmj, who tutored Aylmer Buesst. By 1906 she was a featured soloist at George Marshall-Hall's celebrated concerts in the Melbourne Town Hall{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article189376853 |title=Advertising |newspaper=The Age |issue=16,020 |location=Victoria, Australia |date=16 July 1906 |accessdate=26 May 2016 |page=12 |via=National Library of Australia}} That September she and Marshall-Hall left on the NDL Scharnhorst for Europe, where she furthered her studies under Otakar Ševčík (teacher of Jan Kubelik), then served as his assistant teacher. In 1911 she returned to Australia, where she made her Sydney debut with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra.{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article15257744 |title=Music and Drama |newspaper=The Sydney Morning Herald |issue=22,922 |location=New South Wales, Australia |date=1 July 1911 |accessdate=27 May 2016 |page=4 |via=National Library of Australia}} In 1913 she returned to Ševčík's Meister Schule in Vienna, and was there at the outbreak of war. During the Great War she entertained troops in concert with pianist Una Bourne and sopranos Mona McCaughey and Kate Benda. A 1917 appearance at the London Coliseum with Bourne and Estelle Ward was well received.{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article103522756 |title=Personal |newspaper=The Arrow |issue=1113 |location=New South Wales, Australia |date=28 July 1917 |accessdate=27 May 2016 |page=3 |via=National Library of Australia}} Hood and Bourne went on to Prague and Paris.{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article120517017 |title=Coming Events |newspaper=The Sunday Times |issue=1814 |location=New South Wales, Australia |date=31 October 1920 |accessdate=27 May 2016 |page=3 |via=National Library of Australia}} She and Una Bourne were champions of British composers: in 1920 their Continental concerts featured violin sonatas by Elgar and Dunhill.{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article140253167 |title=Social Notes |newspaper=The Australasian |volume=CX |issue=2,860 |location=Victoria, Australia |date=22 January 1921 |accessdate=27 May 2016 |page=29 |via=National Library of Australia}}

Sometime perhaps around 1920 she married Robert H. Bryson of Montreal. He bought for her a 1717 Stradivarius violin, for which he paid £5000 sometime perhaps around 1930.{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article107574280 |title=A £5000 "Strad" |newspaper=The Muswellbrook Chronicle |volume=13 |issue=57 |location=New South Wales, Australia |date=28 July 1933 |accessdate=27 May 2016 |page=5 |via=National Library of Australia}} Reference to husband being named Sawyers is assumed to be an error, as is name "John Bryson" in genealogy website.

She was a member, with her husband, of the first incarnation of the Montreal String Quartet, which flourished between 1925 and 1928), which comprised Florence Hood and Mary Izard, violins, Robert H. Bryson, viola, and Yvette Lamontagne, later Jean Belland, 'cello, and gave concerts in the Windsor Hall / Salle Windsor.{{cite web|url=http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/montreal-string-quartet-emc/|title=The Canadian Encyclopedia : Montreal String Quartet|publisher=Historica Canada|accessdate=26 May 2016}}

She returned to Australia in 1933 for concert tours and radio broadcasts, one of which featured the first Australian performance of a sonata by Healey Willan.

The Florence Hood-Bryson trophy for strings at the Toronto Kiwanis Festival was named for her.

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Category:Australian women classical violinists

Category:Australian classical violinists

Category:Canadian classical violinists

Category:1880 births

Category:1968 deaths

Category:20th-century Canadian women musicians

Category:20th-century Canadian violinists and fiddlers

Category:Canadian women violinists and fiddlers

Category:People from Caulfield, Victoria

Category:Musicians from Melbourne

Category:Australian emigrants to Canada

Category:Australian people of Ulster-Scottish descent