Born and raised in Montreal, Ethel Stark (1910-2012) studied violin at the McGill Conservatorium and became the first Canadian to win a fellowship to the Curtis Institute in Philadelphia. In 1940, she formed the Montreal Women's Symphony Orchestra (MWSO), the first all-women symphony orchestra in North America. Stark built the orchestra from the ground up, recruiting and teaching amateur players, obtaining instruments, finding rehearsal space, and directing the orchestra. The MWSO gave their debut concert in July 1940; seven years later, they became the first Canadian orchestra to perform at Carnegie Hall. (https://blogs.library.mcgill.ca/music-flipside/ethel-stark-montreal-womens-orchestra/)

She had to do it because women were barred from membership of any professional orchestra. (The original idea was to bring together a chamber orchestra. She wound up with a full symphony orchestra--because that's what women do, right?). From the blurb of a book written about the MWSO, From Kitchen to Carnegie Hall. (https://secondstorypress.ca/products/from-kitchen-to-carnegie-hall)

In the 1940s it was unheard of for women to be members of a professional orchestra, let alone play "masculine" instruments like the bass or trombone. Yet despite these formidable challenges, the Montreal Women's Symphony Orchestra (MWSO) became the only all-women orchestra in Canadian history. Formed in 1940, the MWSO became the first orchestra to represent Canada in New York City's Carnegie Hall and one of its members also became the first Canadian black woman to play in a symphony in Carnegie Hall. While the MWSO has paved the way for contemporary female musicians, the stories of these women are largely missing from historical records. From Kitchen to Carnegie Hall illuminates these revolutionary stories, including the life of the incredible Ethel Stark, the co-founder and conductor of the MWSO. Ethel's work opened doors of equal opportunity for marginalized groups and played an important role in breaking gender stereotypes in the Canadian music world.

A long review of the book gives more details. https://www.erudit.org/en/journals/is/2016-v36-n2-is03986/1051603ar.pdf

The Black woman was Violet Louis Grant, who was trained as a pianist but learned to play clarinet to join the MWSO.

The first link also describes the efforts being made by the Marvin Duchow Music Library (https://www.mcgill.ca/library/branches/music/about) and the Jewish Public Library Archives(https://www.jpl-curates.org/) to preserve and restore recordings made on lacquer disks, including those in Ethel Stark's own collection.

The Orchestra was also the subject of a CBC radio documentary, "It wasn't Teatime": https://www.cbc.ca/radio/sunday/america-guns-and-violence-remembering-beaumont-hamel-the-backfire-effect-1.3637113/it-wasn-t-teatime-ethel-stark-and-the-montreal-women-s-symphony-orchestra-1.3637205