iJewish Museum Vienna (Jüdisches Museum Wien)Innere Stadt
The Special Case of Steffy Goldner: The New York Philharmonic's First Woman
In the Dorotheergasse Project Space: Nives Widauer's installation on Vienna-raised harpist Steffy Goldner, projected onto a historic harp case.
More in Vienna
In 1930 the New York Philharmonic took its first international tour to Europe, Vienna included, and its harpist got a travel case built for her harp. That case is the centre of this show. Steffy Goldner, born in Vienna in 1896, joined the orchestra in 1922 and was its only woman for ten years, playing under Toscanini and Mengelberg.
Nives Widauer projects photographs and film clips from Goldner's life onto the case, so you watch her story play out on the box that carried her harp back home. It ends in a way the museum calls all too typical for women: she quit in 1931 to support her husband, the conductor Eugene Ormandy, and the orchestra hired no other woman for 34 years.
It is one installation in the Project Space at Dorotheergasse, so it fits around the main collection on the same ticket: €15, free under 19, closed Saturdays.
Look for
Goldner's 1930 harp case
Look at the travel case made for her harp on the Philharmonic's first international tour, now the screen for photographs and film clips of her life.
The case that arrived by accident
This is the case the New York Philharmonic Archives lent Widauer in 2017 when one Vienna Philharmonic case missed her New York show, which started this project.
Good for
- An Hour Or Less
- Locals Who've Seen It All
Skip if
You want a full exhibition: this is a single installation built around one harp case.
With kids
Under-19s get in free.
Also at Jewish Museum Vienna (Jüdisches Museum Wien)
On now nearby
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iThe Special Exhibit: Erich Lessing: A Moment of Hope
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Nearby
Image credits
8
- The Special Case of Steffy Goldner: The New York Philharmonic's First WomanCourtesy of Jewish Museum Vienna (Jüdisches Museum Wien)
- The Global Power of Love. A Journey Through the CenturiesÖsterreichische Nationalbibliothek
- The Special Exhibit: Erich Lessing: A Moment of HopeCourtesy of State Hall of the Austrian National Library (Prunksaal)
- Bridge of Humanity. Austria and the 1956 Hungarian UprisingÖsterreichische Nationalbibliothek
- Jewish Museum Vienna (Jüdisches Museum Wien)Sonja Bachmayer / Jewish Museum Vienna, via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
- Theatermuseum (Palais Lobkowitz)Gryffindor / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.5
- State Hall of the Austrian National Library (Prunksaal)Mirej / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0 AT
- AlbertinaC.Stadler/Bwag, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0