Young white male conductor gets selected

Young white male conductor gets selected

News

norman lebrecht

January 12, 2022

Contrary to widespread industry perceptions, there is still a modest market for beleaguered male batons.

IMG’s Federico Benigni has just signed the Ukrainian Sasha Yankevych, runner-up at the Toscanini Competition, for general management,.

Sasha, 30, is presently assistant conductor at Royal Stockholm Opera.

Comments

  • JohnfromDenver says:

    Beleaguered, indeed! One looks around at major orchestras and sees hardly another white male on the podium. Centuries of blatant bigotry must end. And this sturdy racial specimen is even blond and blue-eyed—a happy sight!

  • RW2013 says:

    Male, or just identifying as such?

  • John Borstlap says:

    We live in ‘interesting’ times that the appointment of a young male conductor has become newsworthy.

    A little spark of hope.

  • Amos says:

    Yeah, trump, trump jr, and eric can’t land a gig no matter how little of their own money they donate. Once again white men are facing insurmountable obstacles to succeed in 2022.

  • Player2 says:

    Played under him. Boring choice, limp technique.

  • Ya what says:

    White people age quicker on the face and have a higher chance of going bald lol

    • John Borstlap says:

      But for conductors that is an advantage. The balder, the better: Haitink, Järvi, Solti, Eschenbach, Sir Adrian Bald, etc. And Valery Gergiev gets better the balder he gets. Hair absord too much molucular energy, that’s why female conductors are in a disadvantageous position, they have to work so much harder to overcome molecule deficiency.

  • HugoPreuĂź says:

    A “modest market”?? I looked up https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_principal_conductors_by_orchestra 325 male conductors and 39 female. That makes 89.2 male to 10.8 female conductors of major orchestras. Some high profile appointments are one thing, but the statistics look different.

  • Corno di Caccia says:

    White? Male? Are such words permitted in our new woke world? Good for him. The more the merrier. Although when I look around the current crop of young conductors – male or female – are a poor lot when compared to the great ‘male’ conductors of the past.

  • Nijinsky says:

    This man shouldn’t be hired [redacted]

  • Gerry Feinsteen says:

    The fact that this nonsense about race continues is just baffling.
    The concept of white male privilege: Does it apply to a Ukrainian? Is it the same so-called privilege associated with southern US white males? Is this Ukrainian being lumped into a category of individual by his race and sex alone?
    Is that not…racist?

    We must resist the urge to play into the hands of the crazies for they wish to gaslight all they see as different. Classical music is hardly the proper arena for this battle. They can take their protest to sports first, and then maybe other, more widespread and popular forms of music. Hip-hop—obvious race issues aside—has some reckoning to face in terms of its lyrics. If old Schenker is to be canceled, then a long list of rappers should precede him as their influence on the overall population is far greater. I do not think 11 year olds are viewing Schekner as their much needed father-figure.

    When race is an issue in hiring someone or contracting them, that is a form of discrimination; a color-blind society will view only the merits of the applicant, participant, or performer.

    I see very little difference in giving someone an opportunity because of their race and — while at the same time denying another because of their race.

    • Jim C says:

      Yeah, I never know what “white” is. Especially in the US, where so many “white” families now are what used to be called”intermixed.”

      It’s a dopey label.

  • Niles says:

    The trauma of growing up Aryan in a world of “diversity” cannot be overstated! Let us not pity them, but try to understand their sorry plight.

    • N/A says:

      What trauma exactly?

      • John Borstlap says:

        It’s very difficult to carry the burden of being privileged and being looked down upon for having so many more chances in life. But in the end, such people will form an unfairly treated minority and then the tables are turned.

  • Niles says:

    just a random comment – there are actually studies that show people who cannot understand sarcasm show a lack of intelligence in certain areas of the brain

  • Corno di Caccia says:

    Sarcasm was considered the lowest form of wit. At least that’s what I was told as a sarcastic teenager in years past. Probably because most folk don’t get sarcasm or are afraid of it, which may well have something to do with reduced brain power. I am very sarcastic to myself quite often but then again I always answer back.

    • John Borstlap says:

      I also tell myself sarcastic things regularly, but I’m never quite sure whether I understand them or not, because they have double meanings.

      Sally

  • Matt D says:

    As a blonde, blue-eyed vestige of the great Ukrainian Empire, which abused hundreds of millions and raped it’s far-flung holdings of resources for centuries, this man should bow to the moral supremacy of the Woken West, which has never done any of those things, and has never insisted by force that the rest of the world be more like it. Nope, never.

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