Composer, Pianist & Music Critic
Location: Jewish*G*34
Rosalind Phillipa Kauffmann, known professionally throughout her life as Linda Phillips, was an Australian composer, pianist, poet, broadcaster, music critic, teacher and adjudicator whose career spanned more than eight decades. Born in Carlton on 8 June 1899 to Joseph Phillips and Augusta Polack, she demonstrated unusual musical ability from early childhood, recalling that she could pick out tunes on the piano at four or five years of age and was composing music while still in her early teens.
After attending the Presentation Convent and later Lauriston School, she studied piano at the University of Melbourne Conservatorium under the distinguished pianist Edward Goll. Although Goll hoped she would become a concert pianist, Phillips was determined to become a composer. She later credited Professor William Laver (q.v.) and composer Fritz Hart with recognising and encouraging her compositional talent at a time when few women pursued careers in composition.
Her gifts attracted attention while she was still a teenager. In 1917, eight of her original songs were performed at a chamber concert in Melbourne’s Melba Hall before an audience that included the Governor of Victoria, Sir Arthur Stanley, and Lady Stanley. Contemporary critics praised her originality, melodic instinct and ability to convey emotion through music, predicting a promising future for the young composer.
In 1919, she married Adolph Maurice Kauffmann, a customs and shipping agent and friend of Dame Nellie Melba. Through her husband she met Melba and later recalled visiting the celebrated soprano at Coombe Cottage. The couple established their home, Arion, at East St Kilda, where Phillips would live for many decades and compose much of her music. Their daughter, Bettine Kauffmann, later became a noted radio actress.
Throughout the 1920s and 1930s Phillips developed a reputation as one of Australia’s most accomplished composers of art song and chamber music. A gifted writer as well as musician, she published a volume of poetry, From a City Garden, in 1922 and frequently wrote the lyrics for her own compositions. Among her best-known works were Bush Lyrics and Songs of the Outback, inspired in part by time spent recovering from illness in Emerald, where she became friends with writers Nettie and Vance Palmer.
A defining feature of Phillips’ career was her exploration of Jewish musical traditions. During the 1930s, she consciously set out to learn more about the music of her ancestors, researching Hebrew, Chassidic, Yemenite and Middle Eastern musical traditions through the Kadimah Library, the Jewish National Library in Carlton and overseas publications. A major influence was Abraham Zvi Idelsohn’s landmark study The Music of the Jews. This research inspired some of her most distinctive compositions, including The Golden Bird, based on a poem by Hayim Nahman Bialik, Ash Trees (Oranim), using words by Elisheva, The Yemenite Bride, Music from Lamentations and Exaltation (Chassidic Air and Dance).
Phillips became a central figure in Melbourne’s Jewish musical life, organising concerts at Kadimah Hall and performing with prominent musicians including Hyman Lenzer, David Sisserman and Mischa Kogan. The success of these concerts led to invitations from the Australian Broadcasting Commission to present similar programmes on radio. She subsequently prepared, wrote, performed and introduced numerous broadcasts devoted to Jewish and Australian music. In 1939, the ABC devoted a programme to her compositions, while in 1953 it presented a month-long series, Music of Linda Phillips, featuring her music and performances.
Her compositions were performed by some of the most celebrated singers of the twentieth century, including Dame Joan Sutherland, Dame Joan Hammond, Sylvia Fisher, Lauris Elms, Marjorie Lawrence, Lawrence Tibbett and Todd Duncan. In 1951, she was one of a small group of composers selected by Sir Bernard Heinze to contribute original works to Victoria’s Jubilee celebrations, and in 1956 she represented Victorian women musicians at the International Conference of Women in Venice. During the same international visit she accompanied Dame Joan Sutherland in a broadcast of her songs from London for the BBC.
The death of Maurice Kauffmann in January 1945 left Phillips widowed while still comparatively young. Supporting her daughter while continuing her creative work, she expanded her activities as a teacher, broadcaster and writer. In 1949, she succeeded Thorold Waters as music critic for Melbourne’s Sun News-Pictorial. Over the next twenty-eight years she became one of Australia’s most respected music critics, reviewing performances by leading Australian and international artists while championing Australian composers and performers.
Phillips also made a significant contribution as an adjudicator. For many years she served as adjudicator and co-adjudicator of the prestigious Sun Aria competition, helping to identify and encourage emerging singers, including future international opera star Dame Kiri Te Kanawa. She was also appointed the first female judge of the Australian auditions for New York’s Metropolitan Opera competition.
In 1972, she recorded Australian Light Classics, a collection of her compositions performed with leading Melbourne musicians. Three years later she was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) for services to music. Her achievements were subsequently recognised through inclusion in the International Encyclopaedia of Women Composers, participation in the Second Australian Composing Women’s Festival and Conference, and appointment as Composer of Honour by Monash University in 1994.
By the time of her centenary in 1999, Phillips had become a respected elder stateswoman of Australian music. The ABC marked her 100th birthday with a special concert and national broadcast devoted to her chamber music, celebrating a lifetime of composition, performance, criticism and advocacy for Australian music.
Rosalind Phillipa “Linda” Kauffmann died on 8 October 2002 at the age of 103 and was buried at Brighton General Cemetery in the Jewish section. Her grave describes her simply as “composer, pianist and music critic”, though her legacy extends far beyond those words. Her manuscripts, scores and papers were preserved by Monash University, ensuring that the contribution of one of Australia’s most accomplished composers and musical commentators remains available to future generations.
Sources:
The Argus (Melbourne), reports on Linda Phillips’s compositions performed at Melba Hall, September 1917.
The Australian Jewish News (Melbourne), “Linda Phillips”, 24 November 1939.
The Australian Jewish Herald (Melbourne), “Recordings by Linda Phillips”, 20 September 1946.
The Australian Jewish Herald (Melbourne), “Appointed Music Critic”, 18 February 1949.
The Australian Jewish News (Melbourne), “Music of Linda Phillips”, 20 November 1953.
Pamela Ruskin, “Linda Phillips Celebrates a Lifetime of Music”, The Australian Jewish News (Melbourne), 4 June 1999.
Jeannie Pratt, “Linda Phillips – A House of Music”, The Australian Jewish News (Melbourne), 25 August 1972.
Mariann Biron, “Profile: Linda Phillips – The Music Woman”, The Australian Jewish News (Melbourne), 18 March 1988.
Australian Women’s Register, “Phillips, Linda”.
J-Wire, “From Australia’s Jewish Past: Rosalind Philippa Phillips (Linda Phillips)”.
Linda Phillips (musician), Wikipedia.