Frédérique Petrides papers

19-- D

Frédérique Petrides (born Frederica Jeanne Elisabeth Petronille Mayer) was a violinist, teacher, publisher, and pioneering advocate for women in music.

She was born in Antwerp, Belgium on September 26, 1903. She studied violin with Mathieu Crickboom, Gosta Andreasson, and Paul Stassevitch. In 1923 she emigrated to the United States, where she worked as a teacher and freelance violinist in New York City. She married Peter Petrides in 1931.

She studied conducting with John Lawrence Erb and later attended New York Philharmonic rehearsals conducted by Dimitri Mitropoulos from 1950 to 56.

In 1933 Petrides founded the Orchestrette Classique (later known as Orchestrette of New York) for women instrumentalists. From 1934 to 1943 the group played in Aeolian Hall and Carnegie Recital Hall. For this orchestra, Petrides commissioned and performed new works by Samuel Barber, Aaron Copland, David Diamond, Gian Carlo Menotti and Ralph Vaughan Williams. With her publication Women in Music (begun as the orchestra's newsletter) Petrides promoted the activities of professional women musicians.

Petrides conducted summer concerts in Washington Square Park and Carl Schurz Park as well as the Hudson Valley Symphony Orchestra in Tarrytown, New York, Student Symphony Society of New York and the West Side Community Concerts.

Frédérique Petrides died in New York City on January 12, 1983 at the age of 79. She was one of the most influential champions of women in the profession of music in the twentieth century.

Sources

Groh, Jan Bell. 1991. Evening the Score: Women in Music and the Legacy of Frédérique Petrides. Fayetteville: University of Arkansas Press.

"Frédérique Petrides, Leader In Women's Music Activities". New York Times, January 13, 1983.

Hitchcock, H. Wiley and Stanley Sadie, ed. 1986. The New Grove Dictionary of American Music. London: Macmillan Press Ltd.; New York: Grove's Dictionaries of Music.