Prime Minister Trudeau receiving Ethel Stark, the first Canadian woman to achieve international recognition as a symphonic conductor, at Government House after her appointment to the Order of Canada.
Photo Credit : Jewish Public Library - Archives
Poster advertising Ethel Stark’s The Montreal Women’s Symphony (1970s).
Photo Credit : Jewish Public Library - Archives
Ethel Stark conducting The Ethel Stark Syphonietta.
Photo Credit : Jewish Public Library - Archives
Ethel Stark, taken at the time she was presented to Her Royal Highness Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip.
Photo Credit : Jewish Public Library - Archives
Ethel Stark & Ernest Bloch in Geneva, Switzerland.
Photo Credit : Jewish Public Library - Archives
Ethel Stark conducting the Montreal Women's Symphony Orchestra.
Photo Credit : Jewish Public Library - Archives
1910 - 2012
Ethel Stark
Montrealer Ethel Stark was a world-renowned violinist, conductor and teacher.
In 1934, Stark became the first Canadian woman to perform as a soloist in a broadcasted program across the US. In 1940, she founded the Montreal Women’s Symphony Orchestra, which she conducted until the late 1960s. She was also the Founding Director of the New York Women’s Chamber Orchestra, the Ethel Stark Symphonietta and the Montreal Women’s Symphony Strings. Stark was the guest conductor with symphonies in Canada and abroad including Israel and Tokyo, Japan.
Stark is a laureate of the Quebec Academy of Music, recipient of the Curtis diploma, fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, and the recipient of an honorary degree (LLD) from Concordia University. In 2003, she was made a Grand Officer of the National Order of Quebec. She was made a Member of the Order of Canada in 1980.
In 2016, Montreal’s mayor, Denis Coderre, announced that the Claude-Jutras park would be renamed in Ethel Stark’s honour. Learn more:
