Related News and Information

Related News and Information

It is with great sadness that we note the passing of Madi Bacon, Ernst's sister

The following has been gleaned from various sources, including the San Francisco Boys Chorus website, the Chicago Tribune and the San Francisco Chronicle:

Madi Bacon, a longtime Bay Area music teacher who founded the San Francisco Boys Chorus, died Jan. 10, 2001 of congestive heart failure at her Berkeley home. She was 94.

Madi Bacon was born in Chicago in 1906. She was the youngest of four children of Dr. Charles Sumner Bacon, who was chairman of the obstetrics and gynecology department at the University of Illinois, and Maria von Rosthorn, daughter of a countess who came from Vienna and played piano. In the seventh grade, Madi first showed a sign of things to come when she organized a school orchestra.

Alfons

Misa

Charlie

Ernst

Madi

Bacon Children, with their mother, About 1913

Madi came to California in 1946 to head the Music Extension Division at the University of California at Berkeley. She successfully lobbied for funding to begin music classes for veterans and bought pianos for the university's first music studios.

Asked by the San Francisco Opera in 1948 to recruit and train area boys to perform with the opera, Ms. Bacon found 25 boys who went on that year to sing in "Carmen" and "La Boheme" at the War Memorial Opera House. The productions were a success and resulted in the founding of the chorus, which at the time was the country's only boys'opera repertory chorus. She was its director until she retired in 1972. She earned degrees in both music and languages from the University of Chicago. She was Professor of Music at the University of Chicago, Dean of Music at Roosevelt University, Music Supervisor in the Glencoe, Illinois Public Schools, and Head of Music Extension at the University of California at Berkeley.

Madi studied music with Serge Koussevitsky and Nicolai Malko. She founded many choruses including the Elizabethan Madrigal Singers and the Northshore Choral Society in Chicago. She taught both voice and piano, and presented workshops in choral conducting at Bay Area educational institutions. For her outstanding contributions to the musical arts of the San Fracisco Bay Area, Madi was added to the San Francisco Examiner's Honor Roll of Distinguished Women in 1967.

She led an active and vigorous life. She was an athlete and an avid hiker. She played tennis almost every day until her late 80s. In July 9, 1939 She was one of a party of three women who were the first climbers to climb the Northwest Face of "The Hermit," a 12,328ft mountain in the Sierra Nevada. In her 70s she visited Nepal to hike the Himalayas. She was a lifelong member of the Sierra Club. She helped design her redwood home in the Berkeley hills and was inducted into the Women's Hall of Fame of Alameda County in 1994.

Madi, 1991

It is with great sadness that we note the passing of Madi Bacon, Ernst's sister	The following has been gleaned from various sources, including the San Francisco Boys Chorus website, the Chicago Tribune and the San Francisco Chronicle: Madi Bacon, a longtime Bay Area music teacher who founded the San Francisco Boys Chorus, died Jan. 10, 2001 of congestive heart failure at her Berkeley home. She was 94. Madi Bacon was born in Chicago in 1906. She was the youngest of four children of Dr. Charles Sumner Bacon, who was chairman of the obstetrics and gynecology department at the University of Illinois, and Maria von Rosthorn, daughter of a countess who came from Vienna and played piano. In the seventh grade, Madi first showed a sign of things to come when she organized a school orchestra.

	Alfons Misa Charlie		Ernst Madi
		Bacon Children, with their mother, About 1913

	Madi came to California in 1946 to head the Music Extension Division at the University of California at Berkeley. She successfully lobbied for funding to begin music classes for veterans and bought pianos for the university's first music studios. Asked by the San Francisco Opera in 1948 to recruit and train area boys to perform with the opera, Ms. Bacon found 25 boys who went on that year to sing in "Carmen" and "La Boheme" at the War Memorial Opera House. The productions were a success and resulted in the founding of the chorus, which at the time was the country's only boys'opera repertory chorus. She was its director until she retired in 1972. She earned degrees in both music and languages from the University of Chicago. She was Professor of Music at the University of Chicago, Dean of Music at Roosevelt University, Music Supervisor in the Glencoe, Illinois Public Schools, and Head of Music Extension at the University of California at Berkeley. Madi studied music with Serge Koussevitsky and Nicolai Malko. She founded many choruses including the Elizabethan Madrigal Singers and the Northshore Choral Society in Chicago. She taught both voice and piano, and presented workshops in choral conducting at Bay Area educational institutions. For her outstanding contributions to the musical arts of the San Fracisco Bay Area, Madi was added to the San Francisco Examiner's Honor Roll of Distinguished Women in 1967. She led an active and vigorous life. She was an athlete and an avid hiker. She played tennis almost every day until her late 80s. In July 9, 1939 She was one of a party of three women who were the first climbers to climb the Northwest Face of "The Hermit," a 12,328ft mountain in the Sierra Nevada. In her 70s she visited Nepal to hike the Himalayas. She was a lifelong member of the Sierra Club. She helped design her redwood home in the Berkeley hills and was inducted into the Women's Hall of Fame of Alameda County in 1994.


	Madi, 1991