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JACOBS: Hire more female conductors

An “Our Issues, Our Voices” column

Orchestral music evokes imagery of high class living for some and mind-numbing boredom for others. Mozart’s serene melodies don’t typically capture the interest of millennials as successfully as Taylor Swift or Kanye West’s catchy tunes. Professional orchestras seem stuck in the past and have not uncovered the proper recipe to appeal to younger individuals. Although their inability to adapt to young people’s demands may limit their long-term viability, the way in which orchestras have failed to progress towards welcoming women as leaders is even more problematic. As many Americans continue to fight for the equal rights and opportunities of women, American orchestras seem horrendously disconnected from society. Women still rarely serve as the conductors of the United States’ major, world-renowned orchestras (although they do at the University and in the Charlottesville Symphony).

Like most fields and professions, such as business and politics, men have dominated classical music’s most revered and influential positions for generations. Can you name a prominent, female classical composer? The same is true for its conductors, virtually all of whom were and continue to be male. As of 2013, only one of the United States’s 22 largest orchestras had a female conductor, Marin Alsop of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra. When considering the United States’s 103 largest orchestras, the ratio is only slightly better. According to the League of American Orchestras, women lead just 12 out of these 103 orchestras.

Perhaps orchestras do not adequately consider female conductors in their selection process. I think the problem runs deeper, though. Many fewer women receive doctorates in conducting than men. In fact, over four times more men received these degrees in 2013. When fewer than 30 women receive doctorates in conducting in the United States each year, it’s easy to understand why a man is statistically more likely to win an orchestral conducting job than a woman. Across all fields, women actually receive Ph.D.’s more frequently than men. Why are so few women seeking these conducting degrees? Whatever the reason, it is detrimental to the future of American classical music.

Conditions are dire for some orchestras. World-renowned ensembles, such as the Philadelphia Orchestra and the New York City Opera, have filed for bankruptcy in recent years. Classical album sales dropped 21 percent in 2012. By 2008, the national median age for orchestra concert attendance rose to 49 years old. In attempts to attract younger crowds, and try to retain their long-term viability, orchestras have begun to break from tradition, performing concerts in new venues, teaming up with rock or pop musicians or playing movie scores that younger audiences are familiar with. I have another idea: Hire women to conduct. Once a sizable proportion of the United States’s major orchestras have hired women, those considering doctorate degrees in conducting will see a path forward more clearly, increasing the number of women pursuing these degrees and then the quantity of women from which orchestras can choose. Orchestras should hire more women not only because they deserve equal treatment for their equal skills but also because an exciting change, to welcome a female conductor for the first time in a century or more, might be exactly the spark a professional orchestra needs to attract a new crowd.

Maybe change is on its way, but the transformation towards accepting women as leaders is occurring gradually. Even after Jackie Robinson broke baseball’s color barrier in 1947, it took another six years before 10 African-Americans had earned spots on major league ball clubs, so it’s possible the momentum for change is building slowly here as well. However, Marin Alsop became the music director of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra way back in 2007. In the last nine years, no other women have achieved the same status in equivalently renowned orchestras in the United States. Alsop is as surprised as anyone by the slow pace of change, explaining, “The numbers [of women] hadn’t increased in the way I assumed they would.”

It’s time to move forward. Orchestras won’t remain viable if they don’t find new ways to attract younger audiences. Elevating a more diverse array of individuals to the leadership of the United States’s best orchestras may be the catalyst these ensembles need to find new fans. But even more importantly, it’s suspect that women who are as qualified as their male counterparts receive the most prestigious jobs at much lower rates. Let’s hold male and female conductors to the same standards. Let’s hire more women and help save American classical music in the process.

Aaron Jacobs is a guest writer for The Cavalier Daily and the Minority Rights Coalition’s bi-weekly “Our Issues, Our Voices” column.

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