In this episode Alice discusses Freida Belinfante. Alice is a student journalist with us on a placement organised by the Oxford University Career Services. This article was edited using Hemingway editor.
🎧 listen to Alice's backstory here - she discusses her motivation & research as well.
Alice also wrote a short 2 min read article about Freida with a summary inforgraphic.
“Excitement in music is not illegal, it’s not destructive…In other words, everything can be expressed in music”
During WW2, estimated 65 million people were displaced in Europe alone. One of these is Freida Belinfante. Born in Amsterdam in 1904, daughter to pianist Aron Belinfante. She faced discrimination on many fronts. She was half-Jewish. A woman. Not to mention a lesbian. Despite this, she became the first female conductor at the age of 17. Making her professional debut in the Kleine Zaal recital hall of the Concertgebouw. She gained critical acclaim by winnig the top prize in Hermann Scherchen class. , She also gained conducting opportunities with Orchestre de la Suisse Romande. And, Het Klein Orkest in her native Netherlands. She was a regular guest conductor on the Dutch national radio station. But, the rise of Nazism forced Freida to pause her creative pursuits. She joined resistance group CKC. Succeeding in destroying the register in Amsterdam’s City Hall. This ensured the persecuted couldn't be traced. On the run, Freida changed her gender presentation, becoming “Hans”. Unrecognisable to all those around her. “I passed my mother several times… she never recognised me”.
Yet by 1943, it was hard to disguise herself anymore, so she fled to Switzerland. Here, she was briefly imprisoned as an illegal immigrant. Sent to a hotel which was holding 160 Dutch refugees. It was here she revisited music, starting a camp choir. “I started to become alive again, because I felt that I wasn’t even alive. I felt that I would never care about music anymore”.
After the war, she revisited Amsterdam. But found that arts funding had diminished, and anti-Semitism prevailed. By then she was granted US citizenship, emigrating to New York in 1947. Settling in California. She was hired as a resident conductor in a summer camp. Which opened up doors in university music departments and movie studios. Where conducting Strauss, Beethoven, and Mozart. Eventually taking the position of Musical Director of the Orange County Philharmonic in 1954.
Thank you for reading a A4R 🎨 Post. Don’t forget to visit our gifts shop here. Every purchase scales our impact and pays our bills.
