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Linda Phillips’ life spanned three centuries. Born at the end of the nineteenth she lived until the twenty-first working as a composer, pianist, adjudicator, and music critic.
Born in Windsor, Melbourne, in 1899, Phillips was the eldest child of four and the only daughter. The family was of Jewish origin, and the music of her heritage was an important influence when she began to compose. Phillips did not have the opportunity to study overseas as the First World War was a barrier to those ambitions and she also married while still very young. Instead, like many other women musicians in Melbourne, she studied composition with Fritz Hart.
She began working as a music critic, firstly deputizing for Thorald Waters for the
Australian Musical News and then for the Sun News-Pictorial, a job she held for twenty-seven years until 1976. Phillips was also a poet and had some of her poetry published including in a volume called From a City Garden.
As a composer Phillips wrote chamber, orchestral, vocal and piano works and was one of the most successful composers in Melbourne in the early part of the twentieth century.
This presentation will discuss the importance of Linda Phillips to Australian musical life, interspersed with recordings of some of her many compositions.
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