Women’s quartet replaces violist
NewsThe Cassatt Quartet of New York has recruited Emily Brandenburg in place of Rosemary Nelis, who leaves after two years. The other members are violinists Muneko Otani and Jennifer Leshnower and cellist Gwen Krosnick.
The group, in its 40th year, is named after a 19th century suffragist and specialises in music by women composers.
Wasn’t Mary Cassat an artist? I never heard of the suffragist of that name. Please enlighten me.
I was thinking the same thing!
Mary Cassatt was best-known as an artist, but was also a promoter of women’s equality in the second decade of the 20th century.
Not to be a total D’ck but I don’t feel like a strict (or loose) policy of gender preference in music is a good idea. Actually is total Horsesh$t.
Which person in the photo is Ms. Brandenburg?
In blue!
we need a counter-quartet of white men only specialising in music by white male composers.
Yes, someday, white European men *might* just get an opening to finally… FINALLY… break into the classical music world. Maybe we’ll see an all-male orchestra someday! Imagine that, right?
You know, I really don’t get why people cannot understand that “dog bites man” (i.e. white men in classical music) *isn’t* that newsworthy, while “man bites dog” (literally anyone else getting a foothold in this business) *is* rather newsworthy.
I’m not ashamed of my central-European background, but the victimhood complex of so many of those who share my lineage makes that a struggle sometimes.
I think that many of us support equal rights and removing gender discrimination, which in music has generally broken down historical male dominance, and been to the advantage of females.
I favour equality of opportunity. So i think it is wrong to reintroduce gender discrimination, and then consider it a virtue, as long as it favours women.
To me, introducing new gender discrimination undermines the moral case of removing gender discrimination.
We have had generations of gender discrimination, which is now thankfully being removed. Are we going to help future generations by setting them up for new forms of gender discrimination ?
Having spent my career in a field completely dominated by women, they are far more discriminatory than men, and very hard to compete with.
maybe there has been one or two of those before.
It’s so newsworthy that in 40 years I’ve never heard of them.
You might not be the audience they are trying to reach.
I like listening to good music performed well, and don’t really care about the plumbing of the associated composers or performers in most cases. I figure a group that specializes in music by female composers probably will do a lot of sifting to find music they believe in, and it might be a way to hear some of the better stuff without having to listen to so much lesser stuff. I think there’s a lot of lesser stuff written by composers of any gender!
And the Borodin Quartet was named after a 19th century Georgian medical doctor, while the Rossini Festival is named after a well-known Italian chef…
Actually, Mary Cassatt was not a French suffragist, but a wonderful and famous 19th/20th century American painter, the only one to exhibit her works together with all the famous French impressionists in Paris. Sure, she was also an advocate of women’s rights, but that’s not what made her famous in the first place… This info can also be found in the quartet’s Bio.
If they were so dedicated, then you would think they would perform concerts regularly with Georganne Cassat, the harpist, who is directly related to Mary Cassatt, but they don’t. They just wanted to get the concerts the Lark Quartet was getting, or the Colorado Quartet.
Why do you write “Women’s Quartet” instead of Cassatt Quartet? If the Emerson quartet would have changed a member, would you have written “guy’s quartet changes violist”. This is pretty bad, not just a simple mistake, it’s sexist
Surely named after Mary Cassatt – woman impressionist painter (American).
All-male and female choirs are OK. But not, as a policy, string quartets.
The very name dilutes their cause.
Jane Austen, Szymborska, Anais Nin, Charlotte Bronte, writers; Frida Kahlo, Georgia O’Keefe, yes Mary Cassatt, Yayoi Kusama, visual artists. Heck, leaders even, Joan of Arc, Margaret Thatcher (cue the progressives fuming), Benazir Bhutto, Indira Ghandi….
But female composers? For whatever reason, not as many towering ones.
The result of an overarching male conspiracy to keep women out of the highest ranks of classical music? Sure, if you say so, and why need any proof? The same exact reason why women aren’t 4 poo 000p0@0150 percent of CEOs of Fortune 500 companies.
No-one considers the other, much more logical explanation, which is that, up to now, the breakdown of realized talent hasn’t been fifty fifty between the sexes. Hey, it happens, life is funny when you decide to let people make their own choices. Not as many women among the homeless, soldiers, miners, firefighters either….
Is there any all-male quartet that makes that their point of existing? No. Why is gender discrimination for women allowed? Then again, few could stand to be the only man among three women.