Are there any female conductors of an orchestra, and if not, why?

ceetee

Simone Young is the only one I know of. Arpeggionist will no doubt be able to tell us of more. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simone_Young Jul 21 10, 1:14 AM

star_gazer

There are a very few. "There used to be the assumption that the orchestra was a male domain – it was a carry-over of the chauvinism that was prevalent in the business," says conductor James DePreist, director of conducting and orchestral studies at New York's Juilliard School. "It takes a while for people to be less stupid than they have been in the past." http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20051016/news_1a16conduct.html Jul 21 10, 2:07 AM

queproblema

Sarah Caldwell was the great (in more ways than one) icon. http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2006/03/25/sarah_caldwell_impresario_of_boston_opera_dead_at_82/ The NYT has a 2005 article on woman conductors, first naming Xian Zhang, Anu Tali, and Andrea Quinn, followed by: "Others are Joana Carneiro, Sara Jobin, Sarah Ioannides, Sarah Hicks, Keri-Lynn Wilson and Anne Manson. They confront significantly less prejudice than did their counterparts who are only a few years older: Gisèle Ben-Dor, Catherine Comet, Rachel Worby, JoAnn Falletta, Marin Alsop and others, performers who have made women a familiar presence on the orchestra podium." http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9503E0DD1438F937A25752C0A9639C8B63&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=1 Here's a list of women conductors from Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Women_conductors_%28music%29 Jul 21 10, 4:26 AM

Arpeggionist

The list is grossly incomplete. It has left out the names of several female conductors I know, among them a former classmate of mine at the Jerusalem Academy of Music, Sarit Biron, and Anita Kamien, musicologist and conductor of various Israeli and American orchestras. There are in fact a growing number of women studying conducting nowadays. There were no fewer than eight girls in my conducting courses at the Jerusalem academy, some of whom were also composers as well and quite skilled. It's been in the last 20 years, really, that women have been balancing out this field of human endeavor more. Most female conductors I know conduct choral ensembles though, occasionally stepping up to the orchestral plate. But you're right in saying that up until 20 years ago at least the field of orchestral conducting has been a real boy's club. Jul 21 10, 9:18 PM