Nine weeks for women to apply for baton boost

Nine weeks for women to apply for baton boost

main

norman lebrecht

March 08, 2017

Dallas Opera has put an April 30 deadline on the world’s premier conducting course for women.

Apply here. It only costs $35.

The course will take place over two weeks in November.

Comments

  • Tod Brody says:

    It should be noted that the unidentified woman in the photo is Nicole Paiement, the Dallas Opera’s Principal Guest Conductor and the Artistic Director and Founder of San Francisco’s contemporary opera company Opera Parallèle. She’s one of the primary instructors in the Dallas Opera’s Institute for Women Conductors, and is a visionary and dynamic conductor and leader.

  • Peter says:

    why? which woman wants to apply for that? wouldn’t you as a woman and conductor just want to prove yourself worthy, regardless of your sex, instead of getting preferential treatment? What’s the justification for this discriminatory offer?
    Will we see harp master classes for men only there too?

    • D says:

      I know that I’ll never convince you, and I’m absolutely sure that you’ll never be convinced by any argument, since there is a nigh endless amount of literature which explains this multifaceted argument coming from people truly more brilliant than I in every aspect, from across all ranges of gender, socioeconomic classes, races, religious backgrounds, nationalities, etc., etc., etc.
      But it always comes back to this: if you don’t like it, then don’t support it. No one is forcing you to give your donation dollars to support these things. You have a nearly 100% chance of finding a concert with a man on the podium, so there is no affront on anyone’s values, no one is being held hostage, no one is being forced to attend the masterclass as an audience member with your eyes held open by those machines from A Clockwork Orange. While I understand that there is no legal discrimination against women in our field, if you were to try to imagine a young woman (such as your daughter, if you have one) getting into the field of conducting, certainly you would try to convince her to do whatever she could to get into the field of her passion. Perhaps she would be one of the lucky ones who never participated in any program like this and still was able to become the music director of the Vienna State Opera, or the New York Philharmonic. But for the rest of the women out there who don’t have the opportunity, why not try to get some of them some help from some other people in that field who have been through the paces? Of course you can become a Nobel Prize wining physicist in your spare time from your job as a patent clerk, but for many other people, it’s not as simple. Instead of dividing our small corner of culture in this world, try inviting people who haven’t had the same fortunes that you’ve had into the field. When you become the president of the board of an orchestra, and it comes to having to hire your next music director, then you can take a look at the resume of one of the women who applied, and compare it to the hundreds of other resumes of men who have applied, then you can exclude her based on her participation in *one* program that accepts *nine* people a year. Until then, just move onto the next story.

      • Peter says:

        What is it that you are trying to say? I’m really trying to understand you, but It doesn’t make any sense.
        Why do you insist on making a division between men and women, while in the same time claiming such division doesn’t exist and is detrimental to the prospect of women in the field? Quite an oxymoron, unless you are dishonest about your stated motives.

  • Bruce says:

    The “gender doesn’t matter, only talent matters” stance is a very comfortable one.

  • MOST READ TODAY: