Frieda Belinfante (1904-1995) was born into a musical family in Amsterdam, and was a noted cellist and conductor, eventually becoming the first woman to conduct a professional orchestra in 1937. In 1940, her orchestra had to disband because of World War II, so she put her efforts towards helping Jewish people evade Nazi capture. She forged documents for those targeted by the Nazis, and helped in plans to bomb Amsterdam’s city hall to destroy original IDs. It was during the resistance efforts that she realized she was gay, and she worked with gay and lesbian artists in the resistance. Belinfante went into hiding after that, dressing as a man to evade recognition (she was so successful that she passed her own mother on multiple occasions and was not recognized), and eventually made her way to the US, first to Switzerland, and then to Southern California. She was the founding artistic director and conductor of the Orange County Philharmonic, and passed away in 1995 from cancer. Our Conducted colorway pays homage to this wonderful woman who said “I’ve always helped people, whether they’re worth it or not comes out later. They haven’t all been worth my effort, but the effort was worth it.” This colorway was originally called Duel at the Ministry.
You can find all of our in-stock True Colors yarn on our website.