Birmingham hires two women conductors
OrchestrasFrom the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra:
We’re delighted to announce the appointment of two new Assistant Conductors.
Rita Castro Blanco (below) is one of the most promising Portuguese conductors of her generation and has had debuts with Orquestra Gulbenkian, Orquestra Sinfónica Portuguesa, Orquestra Metropolitana de Lisboa, Orquestra das Beiras, and Orquestra do Norte. From September 2019 to January 2022 she was Principal Conductor of the Huddersfield Philharmonic Orchestra.
Charlotte Corderoy (left) is a London-based conductor and a recent graduate of The Royal Academy of Music, London.
There’s a typo in the headline. It should read ‘Birmingham hires two conductors’.
Hooray for the ladies! It’s about time that female conductors are being considered for jobs on creatively equal terms as males! Looks like that damned “glass ceiling” is finally shattering!
Huddersfield Philharmonic Orchestra? Having a laff?
Why?
The orchestra allowed only people with a UK work permit to apply… Rita Castro Blanco is one of the most promising Portuguese conductors of her generation?? Man how can you write something like this… people would think that they should pay attention to this unique art
They would be breaking the law if they employed someone from overseas that did not have a work permit.
Corderoy did a convincing job in Gloucester with The Pilgrim’s Progress — no easy task!
Wonderful news! Also in Quebec city the newly appointed assistant conductor is a woman. Violinist Marie-Claire Cardinal.
All the best to them! They are fortunate indeed – working with an utterly outstanding orchestra and in a hall with the most sublime acoustic. Every visit to the CBSO is a treat.
Surprise, surprise. This must be the gender equality, quotas, and visibility that promote the woke internet feminists.
Very short sighted post. I think you say you hold a post in an orchestra – you should know then that funding, audiences and private philanthropy are all in serious and terminal decline. Audience figures for most symphony orchestras are, in most cases, also looking dismal post-Covid.
Further education establishments are dropping music as a subject entirely. In the UK, last week alone saw the demise of Northern Ballet orchestra and Mid Wales Opera – two important employers in the sector.
New funding and audiences need to be found. A generation of conductors is almost out of steam (yes, I’m talking about the generation now in their 80’s that could sell out Royal Festival Hall).
Surely it is beyond obvious that if the sector does not embrace the challenge of creating a future, it will very quickly be entirely extinct? New faces, both on the podium and in the audience are a good thing – it isn’t anything to do with being woke, it’s necessary to regenerate a desperately sick industry (and probably to protect your job, too).
Charlotte Corday? I heard her at the Bath Festival…
Very pleased that two more women have been appointed as conductors with a big name orchestra
Oh come on…
Fabulous!
Good news but gender, frankly irrelevant. They’re either good conductors or not.
Yawn yawn. There are too many female conductors around now- they’re lovely musicians often much better instrumentalists than their male counterparts. But conducting is a masculine domain- men are more physically & emotionally fit for it.