Post-New York Philharmonic (1932-1962)

In 1931, Ormandy's conducting career took off when he stepped in as a last-minute substitute for Arturo Toscanini with the Philadelphia Orchestra, leading to his appointment as principal conductor of the Minnesota Orchestra that same year. Goldner resigned her position in order to move to Minneapolis with Ormandy in 1932, giving up her orchestral career in support of her husband. Glimpses of their first house together at 1801 Dupont Avenue South in Minneapolis are captured in Ormandy home videos acquired from the University of Pennsylvania Kislak Center for Special Collections.

Advertisement of Steffy Goldner's solo performance with the Minneapolis Symphony — Goldner would occasionally feature in Ormandy’s engagements after resigning from the New York Philharmonic. This postcard advertisement of Steffy’s solo performance with the Minneapolis Symphony under Ormandy’s baton publicizes the Mozart Concerto in C Major for harp and flute with flautist Henry Woempner. ^[1]

^[2]

The couple relocated to Philadelphia when Ormandy was hired at The Philadelphia Orchestra in 1936, beginning what would become one of the longest music director tenures at any major ensemble.

Goldner’s niece, Hanni Forrester, recalled how her aunt “played a big part in Ormandy’s life, keeping him organized and happy, dutifully supplying a dry shirt and orange juices at concert intermissions.” ^[3] Her musical acumen also did not go to waste:

"She was very much a critic of his in the early days. I remember how, after we would have a rehearsal or we had a performance, she was the first one to come back and tell him what was wrong. She was very valuable in the beginning, because she was a keen musician and she was Toscanini-trained, and [Eugene] respected Toscanini above all others."
– Sol Schoenbach, Principal bassoonist with the Philadelphia Orchestra ^[4]

Additional home movies and pictures exist from in the 1930s-1940s when Goldner and Ormandy frequently visited Europe for Ormandy's conducting engagements and family in Hungary and Germany.

Ormandy and Goldner play shuffleboard on board a ship to visit family in Europe. ^[5]

By the late 1930s, Ormandy now had ample finances and social resources from his posts in Minneapolis and Philadelphia. In 1937, just before the Anschluss, he used his influence to bring Goldner's extended Jewish family from Austria to the United States. Ormandy set up a safe house in Strobl, along Lake Wolfgang near Salzburg, where family and friends resided while Ormandy secured travel documents and affidavits.

Through the politically divided times, Ormandy, Goldner, and Hanni enjoy rowing a boat on the lake at the safe house. ^[6]

Upon immigrating to the United States, Goldner's family resided with the couple in a rented home in Wynnewood, Pennsylvania and, in 1943, moved to Gladwyne in which they nicknamed the house, "The Journey's End." In both locations, the Maestro hosted many guests from the music world, including giants Rachmaninoff and Toscanini, and Goldner served as a charming hostess, famous for her Viennese pastries.

Slideshow of three photographs of Eugene Ormandy and Steffy Goldner in New York in the early 1940s — Early 1940s, Eugene Ormandy and Steffy Goldner in New York (Fred Fehl, photographer) ^[7]

Different Perspective

On April 16, 2018, Director of Archives and Exhibitions Gabryel Smith sat down with Doris Balant, Goldner's niece, to recount early memories and present memorabilia of her close relationship with Goldner. Ormandy and Goldner adored children and especially delighted in Doris and her younger brother Steve — even paying for their school tuitions and upbringings.

Doris Balant, Steffy’s niece and daughter of Gertrude Goldner, helping in the kitchen in Steffy’s Haverford home, 1948. ^[8]

Doris Balant interview ^[9]

Read the interview transcript

My name is Doris Balant and I was born in Stuttgart, Germany.

And when did you move to the United States?

In 1937. I was eight years old and thanks to my aunt Steffy and my uncle Eugene who by that time was conductor of the Philadelphia Orchestra and had some pull and some money, he provided affidavits and tickets for my mother, for me, my brother, my grandmother, Steffy's older sister, the sister's husband, their children, one of whom already had a husband and a child, and a whole bunch of other people. So, that was a really... I’m embarrassed sometimes to say that we came first class on the Queen Mary, you know. When you think about how hard it was, as well as impossible, for other people. And in that memoir that I wrote about my mother it does explain that it was a little more complicated particularly for the others in the family.

So was your mom and your immediate family one of the first to come over?

We were the first from the Goldner family. My parents were divorced at that point. My father stayed in Germany, I never saw him again. And this was, I guess one year before the Anschluss. Yes, in fact, my grandmother, a couple of them in the family got out just before Anschluss, and because my grandmother broke her hip and they told her she was never going to walk again, and she said, forget that, I'm going to the States and she did, you know, so then we were immediately, we lived with the Ormandys for three years. They rented a big house on the [Philadelphia] Main Line and, you know, first in Wynnewood and then in Gladwin and there were a lot of people in that second big house. Although the whole family at one point or another, you know, they gave us a place to live I mean, it wasn't just a ‘place to live’ it was splendid.

Do you have a first memory of Steffy?

I have early memories of Steffy, in fact, somewhere I have, because they would go to Europe in the summer — the Ormandys. And he probably had concerts too, and then they would travel and he had an incredible car, like a Cadillac, one of those big and I might, my recollection is that it was maroon. It was one of those big boxy things that had a jump seat in the middle, you know what that is? Not too young? You're sophisticated enough? I rode on that jump seat. I know one time at least we went to Austria together and I have a little photo somewhere. I don't know where it went. Maybe it's in my files, where I'm standing with Steffy. I must be three or four [years old] in front of Saint Florian. You know what that is? It's where Bruckner worked — the monastery. And pictures at the, one of the lakes and so on. If you have the interest to go to those Ormandy home movies.

I've seen them, yes, they're beautiful.

There are pictures of my aunt. Both of them, I think, with big poles in Stuttgart knocking walnuts out of our walnut tree, you know, and then she brought me she would bring things from or send or bring things from Minneapolis. I remember I have a picture of a wonderful coat with some kind of a waterproof material that doesn't exist anymore. Gutta-percha or something and big gold buttons, very warm coat because Minneapolis, you know.

However, the couple's relationship was strained by the death of their two children in infancy, as well as Ormandy's increasingly prominent career. In 1946 the couple separated, then divorced the following year.

Photograph of the exterior of Steffy Goldner's house in Haverford, Pennsylvania — 742 College Avenue, Haverford, Pennsylvania. Steffy bought this big red estate in 1948 after the divorce where she resided for some years with her sister Gertrude and Gertrude's children Doris and Steve. ^[10]

It becomes more difficult to track Goldner after she parted from her famous husband. We know that in 1948 she purchased a large Victorian house in Haverford, Pennsylvania, where she lived with her siblings, nephew, and niece. She returned to New York City in 1952 and began performing again, though sporadically, including in the pit orchestras of Broadway musicals My Fair Lady and Plain and Fancy. An original cast recording of My Fair Lady exists on which she is prominently featured in the beginning of the second act. However, she never returned to a full professional career.

Stephanie Goldner died in 1962 from pancreatic cancer at the California home of her older sister, Julia.

« previous next »

Steffy Goldner

The New York Philharmonic's First Woman

Steffy Goldner (1896-1962)

Post-New York Philharmonic (1932-1962)

Steffy Goldner (1896-1962)

Select a Link

Post-New York Philharmonic (1932-1962)