{"id":1737,"date":"2025-09-02T09:56:52","date_gmt":"2025-09-02T13:56:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.library.mcgill.ca\/music-flipside\/?p=1737"},"modified":"2025-11-28T14:57:14","modified_gmt":"2025-11-28T19:57:14","slug":"archival-treasures-hertz-berkson-fonds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.library.mcgill.ca\/music-flipside\/archival-treasures-hertz-berkson-fonds\/","title":{"rendered":"Archival treasures at the Marvin Duchow Music Library: Ya\u00ebla Hertz Berkson fonds"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Text and images by Setareh Rezazadeh<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

La version fran\u00e7aise suit.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This summer, in the back rooms of the Marvin Duchow Music Library, I had the opportunity to work on an archival processing project, where I described and organized textual records from the Ya\u00ebla Hertz Berkson fonds. When a collection is donated, the Library organizes and describes the documents in accordance with archival processing principles. The objective is to preserve the original order of the fonds, while ensuring that researchers can find relevant documents efficiently. Like many of the Music Library’s special collections, the Hertz Berkson fonds began as a set of boxes containing documents and objects; these materials are now well on their way to being organized, described, and rehoused in archival containers for long-term preservation. This project has been my inaugural trip within the realm of archives, and it has been a blast!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The donated collection comprises the archives of the late violinist Ya\u00ebla Hertz Berkson<\/a> (1930-2014), as well as members of her family.  Hertz Berkson was an Israeli Canadian violinist based in Montreal. Born in Tel Aviv-Yafo, Mandatory Palestine [Israel], she started learning violin at a young age from her mother, Atara Glickson Herz, concertmaster for the Palestine National Opera. Following studies with Mischa Mischakoff at The Juilliard School in New York, she moved to Montreal and integrated herself into the musical life of the city. Within five years of living in Montreal, she became the concertmaster of the McGill Chamber Orchestra<\/a> (now Orchestre classique de Montr\u00e9al), a position she held for over four decades. She helped establish the Hertz Trio, an ensemble that would perform for over 20 years and which included her brother Talmon Hertz (cello) and Dale Bartlett (piano). Together they would tour the U.S.S.R, England, and Canada. Within Canada they frequently performed in Albertan towns and cities, as Talmon was based in Calgary. Hertz Berkson also established herself as a prominent pedagogue in Quebec, teaching for over two decades at Conservatoire du musique de Hull (now Conservatoire de musique de Gatineau), as well as other conservatories in the province. Outside of her teaching studio, she was a regular faculty member at the National Youth Orchestra of Canada and KlezKanada.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While many documents in this collection pertain to her life as a musician here in Montreal, there are many strong ties to Jewish musical life in Mandatory Palestine. Through program notes and concert posters, a lot can be learned about musical trends both at home and abroad. Not only are there programs from performances Hertz Berkson had been a part of, but there are also many programs from those of her mother, Atara Glickson Herz. Glickson Herz studied in Leipzig in the early 1920s with Henri Marteau; after her studies, she returned to Mandatory Palestine where she performed opera, chamber music, and solo works. The collection therefore contains programs from Glickson Herz\u2019s examinations at the Konservatorium der Musik zu Leipzig, her career in Tel Aviv, and performances she attended.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\"Performance<\/a>
Performance in Palestine with Atara Glickson Herz\u2019s husband, Jacob Herz. (Sousfonds 2, Series B, File 008)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Program from an orchestra concert at the Leipzig Konservatorium (Sousfonds 2, Series B, File 003).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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One of the unexpected joys of this project has been encountering ephemera from Expo 67 held in Montreal. Expo 67, officially known as the 1967 International and Universal Exposition, was a World’s fair held in Montreal from April to October 1967, the year of Canada\u2019s centennial. As music was a prominent feature of the Expo, the McGill Chamber Orchestra had an opportunity to perform, and, as concertmaster, Hertz Berkson attended the Expo for both work and fun! In recognition of her position as concertmaster, she was featured in a magazine spread in the Montreal Expo 67 magazine.<\/p>\n<\/div>

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(Sousfonds 1, Series B1, File 014)<\/sub><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

She also collected programs from other orchestral performances, the Expo passport, and many, many postcards of the various countries’ pavilions (Sousfonds 1, Series A3, File 008).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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