Ewart [née Donaldson], Florence Maud
[Maude; Aldon, Sonia
]
- Faye Patton
Extract
[Maude; Aldon, Sonia ]
(b London, Nov 16, 1864; d Melbourne, Nov 8, 1949). Australian composer. A musically gifted child, she received early training through a scholarship to the National Training School for Music, London (diploma 1882). She went on to study at the Leipzig Hochshule für Musik, where her teachers included Adolph Brodsky and Gustav Schradieck. She also studied with Joseph Joachim in Berlin. On her return to Birmingham, she became established as a performer and conductor. Her compositions from this period include a lieder cycle, several solo songs and most of her first opera, Ekkehard (completed around 1910).
After emigrating to Melbourne in 1906 with her husband, a distinguished botanist, and their sons, Ewart began a long period of compositional activity. She gained early success with the ode God Guide Australia, composed for the 1907 Exhibition of Women’s Works. She pursued further study on several visits to England and Europe, working with Giacomo Settacciole and Ottorino Respighi in Italy between ...
