Grainger Museum

Grainger Museum Home | Browse Grainger Collections | Search Collections | My Collection
Zelman, Alberto

Personal papers, photographs, programs, correspondence, and newsclippings relating to the life of this important figure in Australia's musical history.

Alberto Zelman Jnr (1874–1927), like his father, was a well-known and loved Melbourne musician. A gifted violinist from a young age, he played in G.W.L. Marshall-Hall’s orchestra for some years, leading the second violins.

 

In 1906 he founded the largely-amateur Melbourne Symphony Orchestra which he was to conduct until his death. He also conducted short-lived professional orchestras, including the Musicians’ Union Professional Orchestra and the Victorian Professional Orchestra.

 

Zelman was active as a chamber musician, founding two string quartets, and he taught violin at the Marshall-Hall Conservatorium and later the University of Melbourne Conservatoriums, where he was an effective and well-loved teacher. During a visit to Europe in 1922, he conducted the Berlin Philharmonic and London Symphony Orchestras with his wife, Maude Harrington, as soprano soloist.

 

The Zelman Memorial Symphony Orchestra was founded by his followers in 1933 and is still active today.