Doreen Miriam Bridges (11 June 1918 â 13 September 2024) was an Australian music educator and researcher whose work shaped early childhood music education and Kodaly method in Australia.
Doreen Miriam Jacobs was born in Glenelg, South Australia on 11 June 1918 to Roland Ellis Jacobs and Olga Jacobs. She attended Walford House School and graduated with a Bachelor of Music from the Elder Conservatorium of Music in 1941. While at The University of Adelaide she served on the university's Women's Union including a term as president. After moving to New South Wales she became a member of the Communist Party of Australia (1947âÂÂ1955).
Bridges was Senior Lecturer at the Nursery School Teachers' College and the University of Sydney, influencing teachers and early years practitioners.
Bridges was appointed to the Research Commission of the International Society for Music Education, and was recognised as an Honorary Life Member of the Kodály Music Education Institute of Australia, an honorary member of the Australian Society for Music Education, and Patron of Dalcroze Australia.
In the 1984 Australia Day Honours, Bridges was awarded a Member of the Order of Australia for services to music education. In 2008, in honour of her 90th birthday, Martin Comte edited a festschrift called Musical Dimensions which was published by Australian Scholarly Publishing in 2009.
In 1950 Bridges composed the music to Helen Palmer's song 'The Ballad of 1891' which details the lead up to the 1891 shearers' strike and its aftermath.