Ellen Bergman (5 January 1842 – 5 December 1921) was a Swedish musician, vocal educator and women's rights activist. She was a member of the

Royal Swedish Academy of Music The Royal Swedish Academy of Music ( sv, Kungliga Musikaliska Akademien), founded in 1771 by King Gustav III, is one of the Royal Academies in Sweden. At the time of its foundation, only one of its co-founder was a professional musician, Fer ...

Biography

Eleonora (Ellen) Magdalena Bergman was born at

Strängnäs Strängnäs is a locality and the seat of Strängnäs Municipality, Södermanland County, Sweden with 15,363 inhabitants in 2020. It is located by Lake Mälaren and is the episcopal see of the Diocese of Strängnäs, one of the thirteen dioceses ...

, Sweden. In 1864, she began her education at the

(''Kungliga Musikaliska Akademien'') in Stockholm. She studied cello, organ, harmonic and solo singing, graduating in 1867. She also studied under German singing teacher

Mathilde Marchesi Mathilde Marchesi (née Graumann; 24 March 1821 – 17 November 1913) was a German mezzo-soprano, a singing teacher, and a proponent of the bel canto vocal method. Biography Marchesi was born in Frankfurt. Her father's last name was Graumann ...

. Bergman worked as a singing teacher at the Royal Seminary (''Högre lärarinneseminariet'') and the

Royal College of Music The Royal College of Music is a music school, conservatoire established by royal charter in 1882, located in South Kensington, London, UK. It offers training from the Undergraduate education, undergraduate to the Doctorate, doctoral level in a ...

(''Kungliga Musikhögskolan'') from 1868–1899. For her achievements in musical teaching, she was elected a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Music (''Kungliga Musikaliska Akademien'') in 1876. Bergman's students included Sven Scholander, Selma Ek, and

Dagmar Möller Dagmar Möller (born Dagmar Henriette Bosse; 19 December 1866 – 13 January 1956), was a Swedish singer (soprano) and vocal pedagogue. She was the dedicatee of Edvard Grieg's song cycle ''Haugtussa'' and took past in many theatrical productions d ...

. From the first half of the 1880s, Bergman was known as a leading member of the Swedish Federation (''Svenska Federationen''), the Swedish branch of the

Ladies National Association for the Repeal of the Contagious Diseases Acts The Ladies National Association for the Repeal of the Contagious Diseases Acts was established in 1869 by Elizabeth Wolstenholme and Josephine Butler in response to the Contagious Diseases Acts that were passed by the British Parliament in 1864. ...

which had first been established in

Great Britain Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the northwest coast of continental Europe. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the largest European island and the ninth-largest island in the world. It is ...

during 1869 by Elizabeth Wolstenholme (1833–1918) and

Josephine Butler Josephine Elizabeth Butler (' Grey; 13 April 1828 – 30 December 1906) was an English feminist and social reformer in the Victorian era. She campaigned for women's suffrage, the right of women to better education, the end of covertu ...

(1828–1906). The organization worked against prostitution and particularly the abusive genital examinations of registered prostitutes. Svenska Federationen deemed the existing Swedish regulation system (''Reglementeringssystemet'') to be humiliating and socially stigmatizing. Bergman was an active writer and speaker who became involved in a conflict with Swedish playwright and novelist

August Strindberg Johan August Strindberg (, ; 22 January 184914 May 1912) was a Swedish playwright, novelist, poet, essayist and painter.Lane (1998), 1040. A prolific writer who often drew directly on his personal experience, Strindberg wrote more than sixty ...

(1849–1912) because of her views of gender, who once referred to her in a letter written in 1884 as (literally: "The damned

mare A mare is an adult female horse or other equine. In most cases, a mare is a female horse over the age of three, and a filly is a female horse three and younger. In Thoroughbred horse racing, a mare is defined as a female horse more than f ...

Ellen Bergman"). She was an early member of

Nya Idun Nya Idun is a Swedish cultural association for women founded in 1885, originally as a female counterpart to Sällskapet Idun ('the Idun Society'). Its aim was to "gather educated women in the Stockholm area for informal gatherings". There was al ...

, a Swedish women's association, joining in 1891, and a member of the

Fredrika Bremer Association The Fredrika Bremer Association ( sv, Fredrika Bremer Förbundet, abbreviated FBF) is the oldest women's rights organisation in Sweden. The association stands for an inclusive, intersectional and progressive liberal feminism, and advocates for wom ...

. In the early 1900s, she taught singing in the United States at the Isis Conservatory of Music in California. She was awarded the

Illis quorum ''Illis quorum'' (''Illis quorum meruere labores'') ( English: "For Those Whose Labors Have Deserved It"), is a gold medal awarded for outstanding contributions to Swedish culture, science or society. The award was introduced in 1784 by King Gu ...

in 1899. Bergman died in Stockholm in 1921 and is buried in

Norra begravningsplatsen Norra begravningsplatsen, literally "The Northern Cemetery" in Swedish, is a major cemetery of the Stockholm urban area, located in Solna Municipality. Inaugurated on 9 June 1827, it is the burial site for a number of Swedish notables. Notabl ...

References

Other sources

* Svanström, Yvonne (2007). Jansdotter Anna, Svanström Yvonne. red. ”Ellen Bergman och svenska Federationen: kvinnoemancipation och sedlighet i Sverige 1880-1900”. Sedligt, renligt, lagligt : prostitution i Norden 1880-1940 (Göteborg: Makadam): sid. 71–105. (inb.). Libris 10628213

Biography

References

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Further reading