Damjana Bratuž

Damjana Bratuž
Damjana, about 1950
Born	31 July 1927 Bilje
Died	21 May 2025 London, Ontario
Nationality	Slovenian
Occupation(s)	pianist, music educator, university professor
Known for	research of work of Béla Bartók, radio series Glasba za naše malčke and The Well-Tempered Listener

Damjana Bratuž (31 July 1927, Bilje – 21 May 2025, London, Ontario, Canada) was a Slovenian pianist, music educator, and university professor.^[1][2] She was noted for her research on music semiotics and the piano works of Béla Bartók, and for her role in developing piano pedagogy in Canada.^[1][2] Educated in Italy, Austria, France, and the United States, she was the first woman to earn a Doctor of Music degree in piano literature and performance at the Indiana University School of Music.^[1][2]

Damjana was born into a Slovenian family on 31 July 1927 in Bilje, which at that time was part of the Kingdom of Italy.^[3] Her mother was the café owner Marija Fornazarič,^[1] and her father was the café owner Rudolf Bratuž (Rudi Bratuž), a cousin of the composer and choir director Lojze Bratuž.^[1][4] She had a younger sister, the actress Bogdana Bratuž.^[5][3] She spent her childhood in Gorizia, where her parents ran a café.^[1][3] This Central European, “Viennese-style” establishment in the city center was a gathering place primarily for Slovenian townspeople.^[3]Intellectuals and politicians, students and clergy would meet there.^[3] Between 1932 and 1938, Damjana attended primary school in Gorizia.^[6] In 1937, Lojze Bratuž died as a result of fascist torture, which deeply affected nine-year-old Damjana.^[7] Decades later, she kept his photograph in her classroom.^[7] In 1938 she began attending the Ginnasio–Liceo Classico school in Gorizia.^[1] Alongside this she enrolled in the Municipal School of Music in Gorizia (Scuola Comunale di musica). She studied piano, voice, ballet, and organ.^[6] Her first piano teacher was the pianist Evzebio Kurelič.^[6] She was taught music theory, solfeggio, harmony, and music history by the Italian composer and painter Cecilia Seghizzi.^[8][9] Damjana’s family suffered severely under fascist persecution. At one point the fascist authorities shut down her parents’ café for three months. During the Second World War her father was imprisoned twice.^[4][10][11] After the war he was imprisoned by the communist authorities in Yugoslavia.^[4][11] Two months later he returned to his family and entered Italian political life, advocating for the interests of the Slovenes of Gorizia.^[4][11]

After the war she attended the Slovenian Classical Lyceum in 1945–46, where she completed her final exams in 1946.^[9] At the same time she studied at the Conservatorio di Musica “Giuseppe Tartini” in Trieste, graduating in piano in 1947.^[9] At the same conservatory she completed a specialist examination in composition in 1952.^[9] After graduation, in 1949–50 she pursued professional development at the Internationale Sommerakademie, Mozarteum, in Salzburg.^[9][12] Between 1949 and 1953 she also studied in Trieste with private teachers of piano and composition.^[9] In 1954 and 1955 she continued at the Conservatoire National de Musique and the École Normale de Musique in Paris, where her teacher was the renowned Nadia Boulanger.^[12][2][13] Between 1946 and 1950 she taught piano at the Glasbena matica in Gorizia.^[9] From 1950–1954 and 1955–1957 she was employed as a piano teacher at the Glasbena matica in Trieste.^[9] After receiving a Fulbright scholarship in 1958, she moved to the United States.^[9][14] In 1959 she earned a master’s degree in piano at the St. Louis Institute of Music in Missouri.^[1] That same year she undertook additional studies at Michigan State University, Interlochen, Michigan, in the undergraduate program Radio and Television—Writing and Production.^[1] After a successful piano audition in 1959 at Indiana University, she enrolled in doctoral studies at the Indiana University School of Music in Bloomington, Indiana.^[1] She received an international research fellowship for 1962–63 from the American Association of University Women Educational Foundation in Washington.^[1][14] She completed her doctorate in 1967 and became the first woman at the Indiana University School of Music to earn the Doctor of Music degree in piano literature and performance.^[1][2]

From 1959 to 1965, Damjana worked as an assistant at the Indiana University School of Music in Indiana, USA. ^[1] From 1965 to 1966 she was an assistant professor at Teachers College, Emporia, in Kansas.^[1] In 1967 she took up a professorship at the University of Western Ontario in London, Ontario, Canada.^[1] She brought her parents to Canada with her and cared for them until their deaths.^[4][11] There she taught piano and piano literature until 1993, offered courses in history and aesthetics (especially on Béla Bartók), and introduced interdisciplinary content (music semiotics, Italian diction for singers, etc.).^[1][2] After retiring in 1993, she was named Professor Emerita. She remained active until 2009 as an Adjunct Research Professor.^[1][2]

She trained several generations of Canadian pianists, lectured and served as an adjudicator at competitions across Canada and the USA (1969–2005), and organized workshops for the Ontario Registered Music Teachers’ Association (ORMTA).^[1] She also worked in radio. In 1956–1957 she created and hosted the weekly series Music for Our Little Ones (Glasba za naše malčke) on Radio Trst A.^[1]In 1973–1974 she prepared the series The Well-Tempered Listener for CFPL-FM in London, Ontario.^[1][3][2]

Her research focused on the semiotics of music, twentieth-century piano literature, and especially the oeuvre of Béla Bartók^[15][1] She lectured at international conferences in Europe and North America and led seminars that connected musical interpretation with literature and the visual arts.^[15][1]

She spent her later years in London, Ontario.^[1] She maintained close ties with the Gorizia region and with the Slovenian community in Italy and Slovenia.^[3][13] She never married. In 2011 she and her sister, Bogdana Bratuž, were named honorary citizens of the town of Urbisaglia, where their father Rudolf had been imprisoned during the Second World War.^[1][10][16] She died in London, Ontario, on 21 May 2025 after a short illness.^[2][13][1] She is buried in St. Peter’s Cemetery in London, Ontario.^[2][13]

• The Folk Element in the Piano Music of Béla Bartók. University of Oklahoma, 1976.^[1]
• »On Bartók’s Improvisations and the Pippa Principle«, v: Studies in Music, vol. II, UWO, 1977.^[1]
• Béla Bartók: A Centenary Homage, Studies in Music, VI, UWO, 1981.^[1]
• »Presence of Glenn Gould: the Italian Perspective«, Glenn Gould: A Publication of the Glenn Gould Foundation, 1, 1999.^[1]
• »Folklore and Transcendence: In Memoriam Yves Lenoir«, Revue Belge de Musicologie, 58 (2004), 19–22.^[1]

• Fulbright Scholarship for study in the USA (sponsor: Institute of International Education, New York) (USA, 1958)^[1][14]

• Full graduate scholarship from the University of Michigan for study at Interlochen Music Camp (USA, 1959).^[14]
• International Fellowship, American Association of University Women Educational Foundation (AAUW) (USA, 1962).^[14]
• Bartók Centenary Award (Bartók commemorative diploma and plaque, awarded 7 September 1981 at UWO; one of only three given to Canadian recipients; presented by the Hungarian ambassador Gyula Budai) (Hungary, 1981).^[1][14][17]
• Italian Government Award for Research at the University of Bologna (Italy, 1989–1990).^[14]
• Title of Professor Emerita, University of Western Ontario (Don Wright Faculty of Music) (Canada, 1993).^[1][14]
• Honorary Citizen of Urbisaglia (Italy, 2011).^[1][10][14]

• Lojze Bratuž (her father's cousin and her inspiration)
• Ljubka Šorli (Lojze Bratuž's wife)
• Lojzka Bratuž (her second cousin)