15 Facts About Ida Halpern

Ida Halpern arrived in Canada in order to flee Nazism in her native country, becoming a Canadian citizen in 1944.

Ida Halpern worked among Native Americans of coastal British Columbia during the mid-20th century, collecting, recording, and transcribing their music and documenting its use in their cultures.

Ida Halpern began to learn piano at age six, and was instantly fascinated by the instrument.

Ida Halpern married Georg Halpern, a chemist from the same university, in 1936, and moved with him to the Kingdom of Italy, where she completed her dissertation.

Ida Halpern was able to slowly rebuild her career in music from there.

Ida Halpern taught the university's first class in music appreciation, and later its first class in ethnomusicology.

Ida Halpern was involved with the Metropolitan Opera auditions for Western Canada, and the Vancouver Women's Musical Club.

Ida Halpern found great interest in the folk music of the First Nations of the Canadian west coast, as she felt that folk music bridged the gap between so-called "primitive" music, and music for art's sake.

Ida Halpern is most notable for her work with the First Nations people of British Columbia, recording their music, transcribing it, and documenting the way it was used.

Ida Halpern had to work closely with them and win their confidence over time.

Ida Halpern began to explore the fact that Native music was significantly different from European music, and that listening with "western" ears would not provide a full understanding.

Ida Halpern believed that music was a marker of the complexity of the society that made it, and sonograph data showed just how complex these songs were.

Ida Halpern is notable for dispelling the belief that many of the sounds in Native folk songs were meaningless "filler" sounds.

Ida Halpern was granted a CBE by Queen Elizabeth II in 1957, and the Order of Canada in 1978.

Ida Halpern received an honorary degree from Simon Fraser University in 1978, and an honorary Doctor of Music degree from the University of Victoria in 1986.