Batons of the Sexes

[Megan]

An article from the Guardian


Baton of the sexes


They can't do 'men's music'; their clothes distract the audience; their breasts get in the way ... Rosie Johnston wonders why there are still so few female conductors




'Women can't conduct Brahms, and Mahler is men's music!" Thus Helen Thompson, the then manager of the New York Philharmonic, dismissed Eve Queler's hopes of a conducting career in the 1970s. Queler has since enjoyed a successful career as the music director of the Opera Orchestra of New York, as well as guest conducting all over the world.
Thirty years on and the orchestral playing field may be levelling out in terms of gender bias, but does anyone still consider Mahler to be beyond the interpretive skills of a female conductor?

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Where are all the women conductors in Britian . Jane Glover is very good , but we don't here so much of her now.

[Sorrano]

I really don't know why Mahler should be "beyond" the skills of a female conductor. Isn't that mentality a bit wore out? There was a female conductor I watched at a Handel Sing-a-long Messiah that I thought was top notch. Unfortunately, I don't recall the name as that was several years ago. She was a guest conductor of the Utah Symphony and was very personable at the podium as well as professional.

[Moonscore]

Agreed. It is a tired perspective. I seem to remember a female guest conductor performing with the nashville symphony not too long ago and I heard great things about it.

[susanwen]

Marin Alsop is doing a great, GREAT job with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra. She's brought life to that tired group, who seemed to play competently but without spark under Terminakov.

[Chris]

The orchestra actually pays attention to the conductor? Someone should have told me