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Main Menu Home MAKE A DONATION About Us Contact Us MHS eNewsletter Composers Conductors Instrumentalists Vocalists Featured Artists & Groups Reviews Donors Search Site for... Links Newsflash Fun Stuff Hot Topic! Bibliography Events Myrtle on the Web Guestbook Who's Online We have 25 guests online Syndicate Finding the truth is not enough. What we also have to find is justice.                                ~Rigoberta Menchu Communal Success: on female conductors Monday, 01 June 2009 When can we say that we have arrived, that we've finally made it, and who is included in the "we?" Many folks stated such sentiments when Condoleezza Rice assumed her position as Secretary of State, a visible indication that she had somehow superseded society's limitations on racial minorities and gender. We rejoiced thinking that she was just the first and that others would surely follow. But inevitably came the backlash. Haters said, 'Yeah, she's a successful minority...but her education accounts for her exceptional intelligence, which puts her in a different class economically. Therefore, we can't say that WE have arrived because that type of education and that type of wealth is not afforded to ALL Blacks or to ALL females.' Being the first African American woman in the position was not enough. The general public needed some connection to the larger population, some way to identify...a common struggle. Apparently, being Black or being female was only scratching at the surface...Ms. Rice's success being so isolated was not considered a communal "we." Let's compare that story to the May 10, 2009 article entitled Female conductors crack the glass podium: Though women are making progress, music directors of big-league orchestras still are overwhelmingly male. The article, sent to me by a female Chicago conductor whose attitude was more like, "okay, AND?" posits women as minority podium dwellers, who have finally arrived! Oh good, thought I, assuming that the arrival would be all-inclusive. Unfortunately, I did not see Sebrina Maria Alfonso, Kay George Roberts, Tania Léon, Jeri Lynne Johnson, Sonia De Leon de Vega, Karan Morrow among other names in the editorial. Instead, LA Times columnist Chloe Veltman's article addressed Xian Zhang appointment to The Giuseppe Verdi Orchestra in Milan. Despite her youth (she is 35), her femininity (she wears glittery lip gloss) and her gender, Zhang became the first woman to earn that title with an Italian symphony orchestra. I wondered whether I was supposed to celebrate a woman succeeding in the male-dominated field of conducting simply because she was female--I mean, are women even considered minorities in classical music anymore?--or because she was a Chinese American in a high-power position in Italy? Veltman states, "Female instrumentalists are no longer a novelty in the country's top orchestras, which has helped audiences and industry insiders to accept that women are as capable of the highest levels of musicianship as their male counterparts." Okay, So then for what purpose am I to be glad that the glass podium has cracked? National vs. International. Social vs. Economic. Race vs. Gender. Orchestra vs. Chorus. We can get into conversations about sexual orientation, physical disability, even martial status, all of which can be and have been used as a means to discriminate. The tapestry of access to opportunity and adversity is so tightly woven... So while I was indeed happy for Zhang's success and hoped that her visibility would further expand minds, something in my psyche countered my happiness with the assumption that neither she, nor any of the other women mentioned in the article, struggle with the sub-categories of discrimination that restrict so many others. It seems pathetic that those nuances would restrict the career of fine musicians, but music is a business where politics get as much play as instruments. Therefore, my knowledge of these sub-categories caused me not to see Zhang's success as one for the team. But was I being overly critical? Veltman quotes Henry Fogel, the League of American Orchestra's former president, on his blog in 2007 as stating, "It is safe to say that until the past 15 or so years, there simply was no woman with an important international conducting career." There's the gold. Fogel's last four words indicate that women need not only to be successful conductors nationally, but internationally as well. Zhang, a music director in Italy, has succeeded in doing just that and so I am to thrust my pompoms skyward? I want to and yet I find myself echoing my friend Kim's sentiments: Okay...AND? The "we," at least for me, has still not been realized. I need more! But do I need market saturation or complete gender equality for satisfaction and at what pace? Veltman asserts that "classical music institutions throughout the world are embracing the notion of female conductors more than ever." I hope that she's right. I would certainly like to see more Black and Latino women and men making this kind of news, reaching global status. I believe that if "international" is the new measure of success, we all need to work together in planning ways to nurture our rising stars so that they meet and exceed the prescribed standards. Only then will the success of a few be shared with the "we."   < Prev   Next > [ Back ]       © 2012 myrtlehart.org Joomla! is Free Software released under the GNU/GPL License.

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