When the New York Philharmonic awarded its front seat to a guy there was a general shrug and a sigh: that’s how things are, right?

But during the interregnum since Glenn Dicterow’s retirement, the orchestra has been very capably led by Sheryl Staples and the Philharmonic has two further associate concertmasters in Michelle Kim and Carole Webb. These days, you are almost more likely to see New York Phil with a woman leading than a man.

 

Elsewhere, Nurit Bar-Josef (above, right) is concertmaster of the National Symphony Orchestra and four more women concertmasters have been appointed around the country since 1988 when Emmanuelle Boisvert became the first, in Detroit. In Minnesota, the concertmaster recently married the music director. Still, the situation is patchy and five concertmasters is not that many in a pack of 250 orchestras. (UPDATE: see below: there are more, many more).

In Europe, the distribution is northerly – more women concertmasters in Scandinavia, few in Austro-Germany.

Maybe we should start a list.

Send in details of concertmasters or acting concertmasters of symphony orchs, wherever you are.

We’ll exclude chamber orchs for the time being. Bear in mind, too, that many German orchs have three or four concertmasters, greatly increasing equal opportunities.

*

Here goes:

North America (from north to south):

Diana Cohen, Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra

Gwen Hoebig, Winnipeg

Bénédicte Lauzière, recently appointed concertmaster of Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony, Ontario.

Yukari Cousineau, l’Orchestre metropolitain in Montreal

 

Yoonshin Song is the new concertmaster of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra.

Juliana Athayde, Rochester

Susie Park, Kalamazoo

Holly Mulcahy, Chattanooga Symphony and Opera

Robin Mayforth, Symphony Silicon Valley

Terrie Baune and Dawn Harms, co-concertmasters, Oakland East Bay Symphony (northern California)

Erin Keefe, Minnesota Orchestra

 

Nurit Bar-Josef, National Symphony Orchestra

Ruth Lenz, Reno Philharmonic

Stephanie Sant Ambrogio, Fresno Philharmonic Orchestra.

Jessica Mathaes, Austin Symphony.

Suzanne Jacobson, Temple (TX) Symphony

Carolyn Richards-Chacon, Austin Civic Orchestra

Annamaria Karacsony, Colorado Mahlerfest Orchestra.

Denise Tarrant, Houston Grand Opera and Houston Ballet

Jessica Tong, Evansville Philharmonic

Susanna Perry Gilmore, concertmaster of the Omaha, Nebraska Symphony

Jill Levy of the Albany (NY) Symphony Orchestra

Sarah Kwak at the Oregon Symphony.

Yumi Hwang-Williams, Colorado Symphony Orchestra in Denver

Dawn Gingrich, Orchestra Iowa

 

South America

Lucia Luque, Córdoba Symphony Orchestra (Argentina).

 

Europe

Anna Gebert is concertmaster in Trondheim, Norway.

 

 

Melina Mandozzi , Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra, Norway

Elise Båtnes at the Oslo Philharmonic

Camilla Kjøll and Catharina Chen, Oslo Opera orchestra

 

Maaria Leino, Lahti Symphony Orchestra, Finland

 

Malin Broman, Swedish Radio SO, Stockholm

Jannica Gustafsson and Tale Olsson, Stockholm Opera orchestra

Øyvor Volle, Gøteborgs Opera

Sara Trobäck, Gøteborgs SO

Marika Fältskog, Malmö Symphony Orchestra

 

Yana Deshkova Aalborg Symphony

Christina Åstrand and Soo-Jin Hong Copenhagen Radio, Denmark

Sigrún Eðvaldsdóttir, Iceland SO

 

Sabine Vivian-Höpker at Nordwestdeutche Philharmonie, Germany

Dora Bratchkova and Margarete Adorf, Deutsche Radio Philharmonie Saarbrücken

Kathrin Rabus at NDR Hannover

Ursula Berg in the Gürzenich orchestra, Cologne

Natalie Kundirenko, Göttinger Symphonie Orchester

Anna Rezniak, Nürnberger Symphoniker

Mila Georgieva and Natalie Chee, co-concertmasters of the Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra.

Yun-Jin Cho, Gewandhausorchester Leipzig
Heike Janicke, Dalia Schmalenberg, Eva Dollfuß, Dresdner Philharmonie
Juliane Winkler, Staatskapelle Berlin
Odette Couch, Munich Philharmonic
Alexandra Psareva, Ruxandra Klein, Marietta Kratz & Brigitte Lang, NDR Sinfonieorchester

Friederike Starkloff, NDR Radiophilharmonie

Naoko Ogihara, Susanne Richard & Ye Wu; WDR Sinfonieorchester

Barbara Kink; hr-Sinfonieorchester, Frankfurt

Franziska Früh; Düsseldorfer Symphoniker / Deutsche Oper am Rhein

Barbara Burgdorf; Bayerisches Staatsorchester

Judith Eisenhofer, Annegret Knoop, Claudia Ander-Donath, co-leaders at Thüringen, Gera/Altenburg

 

Albena Danailova, one of four concertmasters at the Vienna Philharmonic, is presently in maternity leave with her second child.

Bettina Gradinger, Vesna Stankovic-Moffat, Anne Harvey-Nagel at Vienna Volksoper

Lieke te Winkel, Tonkünstler Orchester

Yukiko Imazato-Härtl and Fuyu Iwaki, Graz Philharmonic

Marianne Riehle, Monika Kammerlander, Mozarteum Salzburg
Monika Schuhmayer, Vorarlberg Sinfonieorchester

 

Geneviève Laurenceau Orchestre national du Capitole de Toulouse

Charlotte Juillard, Orchestre philharmonique de Strasbourg

Dorota Anderszewska Orchestre National de Montpellier

Sarah Nemtanu, Orchestre National de France (her sister, Deborah, leads a chamber orch)

 

Jennifer Gilbert, sister of Alan Gilbert, is concertmaster of Orchestre National de Lyon.

Vera Novakova, first concertmaster of the Orchestre Philharmonique de Nice

Ann-Estelle Médouze of L’Orchestre National d’Ile de France

 

Carla Leurs, Nederlands Sinfonieorkest

Elisabeth Perry & Nadia Wijzenbeek, both Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra

Olga Martinova, Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra

Cécile Huijnen, Arnhem Philharmonic Orchestra

Lisanne Soeterbroek, Royal Flemish Philharmonic Orchestra (Belgium)

 

Wioletta Zabek, Concertmaster of the Orquesta Sinfonica de Castilla y Leon in Valladolid since 1991.

 

 

 

Lisa Schatzman and Ina Dimitrova, Lucerne Symphony Orchestra, Switzerland

Anna Weinmeister, Zurich Opera

Julia Becker, Tonhalle Zurich

 

Lynn Fletcher, Halle orchestra, Manchester

Clio Gould, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, London

Janice Graham, English National Orchestra

Lesley Hatfeild, BBC National Orchestra of Wales

Thelma Handy, joint leader Royal Liverpool Philharmonic

 

Helena Wood (with co-leader Elaine Clark) – RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra

Mia Cooper – RTÉ Concert Orchestra

 

Russia

Lyudmila Tchaikovskaya, Mariinsky Theatre Orchestra
Tatiana Porshneva, Russian National Orchestra
Alexandra Zhavoronkova, Moscow State Symphony Orchestra
Elena Reznichenko, National Philharmonic Orchestra of Russia
Olga Dzerzhinskaya, New Russia State Symphony Orchestra

 

Africa

 

Joanna Frankel serves as Concertmaster of the KwaZulu-Natal Philharmonic Orchestra, South Africa.

 

Middle East

Jenny Hunigen and Geana Gandelman, Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra