No women in Dutch music awards
mainIt’s 2017, for heaven’s sake, but the Gaudeamus Music Awards still contrive to ignore half the human race,
Press release:
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To suggest ignorance (to half the human race) requires knowledge of the procedure willfully ignoring women.
Otherwise it is statistically totally possible, that a jury looks at a body of work, not at the names behind it, and chooses the six best. And they all happen to be from men. It’s possible and not even unlikely, given the hesitance of women choosing these professional fields.
Now what would really be outrageous is if anyone, man or woman, would get preferential treatment because of their gender, not their work.
The scores and recordings are sent anonymously. Thus the composers are selected because of their work, not because of gender. To state that Gaudeamus judges have selected men simply because of their gender, is not accurate. One of the three jury members was also a woman. Please check your facts.
It would be nice to see more female composers in these kinds of competitions but to achieve that, we have to encourage young girls and women to compose.
+100 Truth very succinctly stated, as are all your comments. Please keep them coming.
The scores and recordings are sent anonymously. Thus the composers are selected because of the quality of their work, not their gender. To say that the judges selected the finalists prefering male composers is not accurate. Also, one of the three jury members was a woman. Please check your facts.
It would be nice to see more female composers in these kind of competitions, but in order to achieve that we must encourage young girls and women to compose.
With all due respect, but Gaudeamus is a product of postwar modernist ideology, where transcendence of boundaries – in terms of musical means / language – and progressiveness form the heart. Since such aesthetics, enlarged by what underdeveloped people think is ‘hip’ and ‘trendy’, have become entirely conventional and petrified in new music circles, this ideology has become the most reactionary filter ever, so these poor youngsters will be awarded for their most conventional, conformist easy-going products, and be steered into the new music ghetto where remnants of postwar ideologies still reign. With developments of music, let alone with dealing with the serious questions of contemporary music, Gaudeamus has nothing to do.
This study of women in leadership positions in business provides an interesting context for this story. The analogy would that composers occupy leadership positions in classical music. Note that Russia and its some of its neighbors hold the top five positions for women in leadership positions in business, while the Netherlands is 7th from the bottom, and Germany second from the bottom (ahead of only Japan.) The USA does not do much better and is well outranked by countries like France, Italy, Spain, and even Turkey.
Germany has taken a strong stance against this problem and has mandated by law a 30% ratio for women on corporate boards.
Sorry, I forgot to include the URL:
https://www.grantthornton.global/en/press/press-releases-2015/women-in-business-2015/
I’m wondering — could the root of many, even all of serious music’s troubles today reach somehow beyond gender, beyond style even, toward & into more up-to-date Procedures in modern composition?
Procedures that are non-elitist, not to be dismissed with snide remarks, cheap laughter &c (at least from any of you here) since one doesn’t quarrel with success.
The first half or so of this link deals in procedures, the rest more with marketing. It just may be new to you.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UPPw1JiQ-kQ
Has anyone made any statistics on how many % of composers today are women? (Less than 10 %..?)
Half of composers are women (which half, is debatable), but most of them use male pseudonyms.