Antonia Brico

Antonia Brico, a Dutch-born American pianist, was the first woman to gain international recognition as a conductor of professional symphony orchestras, including companies in Berlin, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Hamburg. In 1934, she became the conductor of the Women’s Symphony Orchestra, founded in New York, and, in 1938, was the first woman to conduct the New York Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra. Brico settled in Denver in 1942, where she founded a Bach Society and the Women’s String Ensemble.