Shira Hass is set to star as Ethel Stark in Aisling Walsh’s new film “Ethel.”

The film, which was picked by Bankside Films for international sales rights at the European Film Market, will tell the story of the pioneering conductor Ethel Stark who led the Montreal Women’s Symphony Orchestra.

The film will also star Sarah Paulson as Madge Bowen.

Currently in pre-production, the film is based on a screenplay by Celeste Parr.

Stark was a Canadian violinist and conductor who studied at the McGill Conservatory of Music and was made a Member of the Order of Canada. In 1940, at the age of 29, Ethel founded the Montreal Women’s Symphony Orchestra, which she conducted until 1960. She was the first conductor of an all-women’s symphony.