Alma Moodie

Alma Templeton Moodie (12 September 1898 – 7 March 1943) was an Australian violinist who established an excellent reputation in Germany in the 1920s and 1930s. She was regarded as the foremost female violinist during the inter-war years, and she premiered violin concertos by Kurt Atterberg, Hans Pfitzner and Ernst Krenek. She and Max Rostal were regarded as the greatest proponents of the Carl Flesch tradition. She became a teacher at the Hoch Conservatory in Frankfurt. However, Alma Moodie made no recordings, and she appears in very few reference sources. Despite her former renown, her name became virtually unknown for many years. She appeared in earlier editions of Grove's and Baker's Dictionaries, but does not appear in the more recent editions.

Alma Moodie was born on 12 September 1898 in Mount Morgan. The facts of Alma Moodie's life are often unclear from what little references to her appear in modern sources. Both the 5th edition of Grove's Dictionary (her article was written by Frank Bridge), and the 5th edition of Baker's Dictionary (ed. Nicolas Slonimsky) say she was born in Brisbane, Queensland on 12 September 1900. However, other sources say she was born in Mount Morgan or in Rockhampton on 12 September 1898. She grew up in Mount Morgan, only 28 kilometres (17 mi) from Rockhampton (Brisbane is almost 700 kilometres (430 mi) distant), so a birth in either Rockhampton or Mount Morgan seems more likely.

She was an only child. Her father, an ironmonger from Ayrshire, Scotland, died when she was one year old. Her mother, a music teacher, was the daughter of Irish immigrants.

She studied violin at Mount Morgan, being taught initially by her widowed mother from a very young age, and from the age of 5 by Louis D’Hage in Rockhampton. She appeared in public recitals at age 6 – a performance in Rockhampton in October 1904 was described by a local reporter from The Morning Bulletin, "Her rendering of Renard's 'Berceuse,' accompanied on the piano by Herr Hage, showed the possibility of surprising musical gifts being developed at an extremely young age. The executive ability displayed in this, and an encore piece – 'Canzonetta' (Daube) – was certainly remarkable."

...
Wikipedia