Conductor, expecting baby, gives up job

Conductor, expecting baby, gives up job

News

norman lebrecht

July 29, 2021

The German conductor Joana Mallwitz has decided to step down as general music director at the Nuremberg State Philharmonic in 2023.

She is expecting a baby this autumn and gives as her reason ‘that my family situation will change’.

Mallwitz, 35, regrets that she will not be able to lead the orchestra into the new hall for which she has campaigned.

A vibrant personality on the German scene, she will take a break and return in another role.

Comments

  • Gustavo says:

    Women have a more time-constrained pace of life than men, because they have a limited amount of gametes with a limited time window for successful reproduction, while the male sex continues producing and excreting sperm 24/7 and can reproduce multiple times over the entire life-span.

    These biological facts impact all socio-cultural aspects of human life over historical time scales, leading to a clear sex-bias in the frequencies of artistic activity and output.

    There will never be absolute equality among the sexes as long as there is anisogamy, sexual selection and sperm-competition.

    • Kenneth says:

      I don’t understand the dislikes here – Gustavo is just stating facts.

      • Tamino says:

        well, people who don‘t like reality are quite common?

      • HM says:

        Sit down, both of you. It’s a woman’s choice, and THEY deal with whatever biological factors THEY need to.

        • Gustavo says:

          Absolutely, sexual selection is driven by female choice acting on males competing over limited ova, leading to directional selection towards ever greater extremes in fitness-correlated male quality signals.

        • Hayne says:

          I think you’re inferring from the general to the specific. Of course individual women can choose what they want. In general, they conform to what Gustavo wrote. I said in general…

        • Kenneth says:

          Of course it’s a woman’s choice. When was it implied otherwise?

          Also that little ‘sit down’ comment is rather unnecessary, and unprovoked from either of us. We should engage in actual conversations and rather than hostility and virtue-signaling.

      • Gustavo says:

        It seems to be a very human trait not to accept facts and to even turn away from them, particularly if it involves changing behavioural routines – see the long-standing need to immediately stop using fossil fuels (i.e. car driving and flying) to increase survival probability in view of the predicted catastrophic climate change scenarios.

        Accepting vaccines and FFP2 masks to protect human life did not involve giving up acquired resources and mass status symbols (cars), so perhaps that’s why these “life-saving” measures were easily prescribed by regulators and easier to accept across societies.

      • Karl says:

        Facts are sexist and racist. Didn’t you know that Kenneth?

    • GUEST says:

      Shh. Don’t share this news with Clara Schumann.

    • Sue Sonata Form says:

      Intelligent and realistic observation. However this is another element; women claim income equality and much of the time this resembles “womens’ grand slam tennis equality”, if you get my meaning.

      I have a son in the resources (mining) sector and he tells me women NEVER clamber to get into pits, work in 52 degree temperatures, haul equipment, drive drills. It’s the air-conditioned, office and managerial jobs they demand. Anyone with an IQ above room temperature already knows this.

      Good luck to the conductor in this article!!

  • Annep says:

    For what I experienced, and even though she already had held several appointments in the country, she was very much not ready for such position when she took it (and people, including myself, complained that there were non-musical reasons for her appointment), but after a few years, even though her conducting has not improved substantially, she has become a familiar face in the city, and is attracting younger audiences. Artistically it will not be a massive loss, but businesswise and and in the community she will be missed when she leaves

  • PK says:

    Good for her, family always comes first and I admire people who are able to recognize that. She also looks like a lovely person so I am sure opportunities will keep happening for her.

  • Oye gavolt! says:

    No shit, Sherlock! Who knew???

  • John Willan says:

    Herr, lehre doch mich, das ein ende mit mir machen muss

  • Gustavo Pepperoni says:

    You judgemental ppl, on both sides, are disgusting. Your opinions are worthless.

  • Tamino says:

    2023? Isn‘t that the year Thielemann‘s job in Dresden is up for grabs? …

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