Frédérique Petrides
| Frédérique Petrides | |
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Courtesy of the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, Music Division, and The University of Arkansas Press
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| Born |
Frédérique Mayer September 26, 1903 Antwerp, Belgium |
| Died | January 12, 1983 (aged 79) Manhattan, New York |
| Nationality | Belgian-born American |
| Citizenship | United States |
| Occupation | Orchestral conductor, editor and publisher, violinist |
| Years active | 54 |
| Organization | Orchestrette Classique, West Side Orchestral Concerts |
| Notable work | Editor and publisher of the Women in Music newsletter |
| Spouse(s) | Peter Petrides (1896-1978) |
| Children | Avra Petrides, daughter (November 21, 1938-) |
| Awards | National Federation of Musicians, 1979 Merit Award |
Frédérique Petrides (pronounced peh TREE dis), (September 26, 1903 – January 12, 1983), was a Belgian-American conductor and violinist. In 1933, she founded and conducted the Orchestrette Classique in New York. It consisted of women musicians and premiered works by then relatively untried American composers, such as Paul Creston, Samuel Barber and David Diamond, that are now widely played and celebrated. She also edited and published the ground-breaking newsletter, Women in Music, which highlighted the activities of professional women musicians throughout the ages.
In addition, she founded several concert series in Manhattan, including the West Side Orchestral Concerts, the Student Symphony Society of New York, and the Carl Schurz Park concerts.
In 1933, when Frédérique Petrides first presented her Orchestrette Classique, it was almost unheard of for a woman to be an orchestral conductor. And even at the close of her career, in 1977, not much had changed in that regard. Petrides was a pioneer, as one of the first woman conductors and "one-woman crusader" for the rights and advancement of women musicians in general, through her performances, articles and the dissemination, in the United States and internationally, of the Women in Music newsletters.
Frédérique Petrides was born Frédérique Jeanne Elisabeth Petronella Mayer, into a luxurious life in Antwerp, Belgium on September 26, 1903, which she later shared with two younger brothers, Jan and Gottfried. She was daughter to Joseph Heinrich Friedrich Mayer, a prominent industrialist and art collector, and Séraphine Sebrechts Mayer, a well-known pianist, composer and teacher at the Royal Conservatory of Brussels, who was also an accomplished painter and photographer.
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