Antonia Brico

Who was Antonia Brico?

Antonia Brico was a conductor and pianist.

Brico was born in Rotterdam, Netherlands. She and her foster parents immigrated to the United States in 1908 and settled in California. On leaving high school in Oakland in 1919 she was already an accomplished pianist and had experience in conducting. At the University of California, Berkeley, Brico worked as an assistant to the director of the San Francisco Opera. Following her graduation in 1923 she studied piano under a variety of teachers, most notably under Sigismund Stojowski.

In 1927 she entered the Berlin State Academy of Music and in 1929 graduated from its master class in conducting, the first American to do so. During that period she was also a pupil of Karl Muck, conductor of the Hamburg Philharmonic Orchestra, with whom she studied for a further three years after graduation. Following her debut as a professional conductor with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra in February 1930, Brico worked with the San Francisco Symphony and the Hamburg Philharmonic winning plaudits from critics and the public. Appearances as guest conductor of the Musicians' Symphony Orchestra in Detroit, Washington, D.C. and other sites soon followed. In 1934 she was appointed conductor of the newly founded Women's Symphony Orchestra which, in January 1939, became the Brico Symphony Orchestra.