Richard Goldner

Richard Goldner (23 June 1908 – 27 September 1991) was a Romanian-born, Viennese-trained Australian violist, pedagogue and inventor. He founded Musica Viva Australia in 1945, which became the world's largest entrepreneurial chamber music organisation. The Goldner String Quartet was named in his memory.

Biography

Richard Goldner was born in Craiova, Romania in 1908. His father, Avram Beer Goldner, was a delicatessen owner, and his mother was Bertha (née Sachter). He took up the violin at the age of four or five. There, although designated an enemy alien He founded the Monomeeth String Quartet, basing its name on an indigenous word for peace and harmony.

However, because the Australian Musicians Union's restrictions on employing foreigners meant Goldner could not take up an offer of a position with an Australian Broadcasting Commission orchestra, he had to find other ways of making a living. with Gerard. and which was vitally needed for use in the manufacture of parachutes. For this, he was attached to the Army Inventions Directorate and the Royal Australian Air Force.

During the war, the then Minister for Immigration, Harold Holt, was personally very helpful in arranging passage for Richard Goldner's parents to Australia. The success of the concert inspired Goldner to form an organisation for the promotion of chamber music in all its forms. In this he was supported by Hephzibah Menuhin (then married to an Australian and living in Victoria) and assisted by a fellow refugee named Walter Dullo, a German lawyer-turned-chocolate maker and musicologist. Together, Goldner and Dullo found 17 musicians (mostly also southern or central European refugees, and mostly Jewish) and formed them into four separate chamber groups under the name Musica Viva. The initial funding for the organisation came from Goldner himself, from the proceeds of the manufacture of his zipper.

The Richard Goldner Award was founded by the Balmain Sinfonia in 1993, and goes to the winner of a biennial concerto competition for the player of an orchestral string instrument.

Goldner String Quartet

The Goldner String Quartet was formed in honour of Richard Goldner in 1995, and consists of Dene Olding and Dimity Hall (violins), Irina Morozova (viola; an ex-pupil of Goldner) and Julian Smiles (cello).