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"The Devil Ties My Tongue" by Amy Seiwert performed for the SKETCH Series, 2013. Photo by David DeSilva. Courtesy of Amy Seiwert's Imagery

Orchestrated Sex: The Representation of Male and Female Musicians in World-Class Symphony Orchestras

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By Desmond Charles Sergeant  and Evangelos Himonides

16 August 2019

This study examines the representation of male and female musicians in world-class symphony orchestras. Personnel of 40 orchestras of three regions, the UK, Europe, and the USA, and distributions of men and women across the four orchestral departments, strings, woodwind, brass, and percussion, are compared. Significant differences in representation between orchestras of the three regions are reported. Practices adopted by orchestras when appointing musicians to vacant positions are reviewed and numbers of males and females appointed to rank-and-file and Section Principals are compared. Career patterns of male and female musicians are also compared. Increases in numbers of women appointed to orchestral posts in the last three decades are compared with increases in the proportion of women in the general workforce. The data of orchestral membership are then compared with the numbers of young people receiving tuition on orchestral instruments retrieved from a large national database (n = 391,000 students). Implications for the future of male and female representation in orchestral personnel are then considered.

Introduction

During the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, acquisition of musical skills by women was applauded, but social conventions prevailing in Europe and America approved their display in private but not in public. Except for the piano and the voice, women were severely limited in their access to musical training, witness the difficulties suffered by the English composer Ethel Smyth (1858–1944) and by other women (Smyth, 1987; Wood, 1995; Gillett, 2000; Vorachek, 2000; Kertesz and Elizabeth, 2001; Meling, 2016, p. 188). Conventions of respectability and appropriateness regarding feminine manners and appearances and attitudes to the female body decreed that some instruments were “unsightly for women to play, interfering with appreciation of the female face or body” or judged their playing positions to be indecorous (Gillett, 2000; Doubleday, 2008). Female cellists, for example, were obliged to adopt an impractical position sitting alongside the instrument in order to avoid a scandalous indelicacy of placing an instrument between their legs1 (Cowling, 1983; Tick, 1986; Doubleday, 2008, p. 18; Baker, 2013).

As a consequence of these social attitudes, women were excluded from professional music-making, and until the second decade of the twentieth century, membership of professional orchestras was restricted to male musicians (Fasang, 2006). The first appointments of women to tenured positions in a major orchestra in the UK were made by Sir Henry Wood, in 1913, by his engagement of six female violinists to the Queen’s Hall Orchestra. The loss of male musicians during the 1914–1918 war brought more women to Henry Wood’s orchestra. By the end of that conflict, their number had risen to 18, but acceptance of women was neither universal nor rapid. Early photographs of major orchestras dating from the 1940s show their membership as resolutely male. Examples from the archives of the London Symphony Orchestra, founded in 1904, show no women until 1942, at which date one lady is visible seated among the 2nd violins2,3.

It was not until 1930 that the first woman was appointed to a tenured fully professional post in an American orchestra, when Edna Phillips joined the Philadelphia Orchestra as its harpist4. Ellen Bogoda also made history in 1937 as the first woman brass player to be hired when she was appointed as principal horn player by the Pittsburgh Orchestra (Phelps, 2010, p. 36).

Read the rest of the study on Fronteirsin.org.

Hyperallergic: Hundreds of Philadelphia Museum of Art Workers Call for Institutional Accountability on Sexual Harassment

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By Hakim Bishara

15 January 2020

Fallout continues from Joshua Helmer‘s departure from his job as executive director of Pennsylvania’s Erie Art Museum. Hundreds of current and former staff members at the Philadelphia Museum of Art (PMA), Helmer’s workplace prior to the Erie, signed a petition in support of the women who came forward with allegations of sexual misconduct against Helmer in a New York Times article. The signatories call for a structural change in the museum’s sexual harassment policy.

Helmer worked at the PMA as assistant director of interpretation from 2014 to February 2018. During that period, he engaged in several romantic relationships with women in the workplace in violation of the museum’s policy while dangling promises of professional advancement and favorable treatment. But the revelations brought by reporting by the New York Times and Philadelphia Inquirer “barely scratch the surface” of abuses committed by Helmer, the signers say.

“Former and current staff of the Philadelphia Museum of Art listed below wish to express solidarity with our current and former colleagues who so bravely spoke out in the New York Times and those in Erie who did the same,” the petition, which has garnered 365 signatures as of this writing, reads. “We believe their stories and admire their courage.”

The statement will be shared publicly with the hashtag #MuseumMeToo

Read the full article on hyperallergic.com.

Dance Magazine: This Ballet Company Will Only Dance Works by Women in 2020. The Director Doesn’t Think That Should Be News

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By Steve Sucato

21 January 2020

It’s fitting that New Zealand, the first country to give women the right to vote, should also be the place where, for the first time, a major ballet company will pre­sent an entire 12-month dance season devoted to works by female choreographers. But according to Royal New Zealand Ballet’s artistic director, former Pacific Northwest Ballet star Patricia Barker, programming this historic season was far less difficult than it might sound.

At the start of your tenure in 2017, there was some controversy around the ratio of non–New Zealander dancers and staff hired. Has the dust finally settled?

That really never had anything to do with me. I was just the unlucky one that stepped into it. My goal was to turn the attention back to the art. As soon as we did that, all of that uproar dissipated.

Read the full article from Dance Magazine.

BWW Feature: THE DAY at Tennessee Performing Arts Center

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By Melia Kraus-har

17 January 2020

Cellist Maya Beiser’s history with composer David Lang’s 2001 work world to come includes commissioning and recording it for an album, accompanying choreographer Pontus Lidberg’s film Labyrinth Within (utilizing Lang’s score) which introduced her to dancer Wendy Whelan in 2010. And now, as a collaboration with Whelan, choreographer Lucinda Childs, and commissioning an additional “prequel” composition from Lang for the evening-length work, THE DAY, to be co-presented by Tennessee Performing Arts Center and Oz Arts Nashville in partnership with Nashville Ballet on January 18, 2020. Speaking by phone, Beiser described her early practice sessions learning world to come, born out of 9/11 experiences. “I kept getting imagery for the music while I practiced. While music is usually a very visual experience for me, I kept seeing a woman dancing. She embodied the feelings of everyone’s experience. The piece became multi-disciplinary to reflect the visceral aspect of sense and remembrance. THE DAY is not a 9/11 memorial, but builds upon the memories we hold on to, or the images that deeply shape memory.”

In terms of building the creative team for the work, Beiser felt strongly that women should shape the artistic direction. Whelan also concurred by phone, deeming that she “played it safe” in her initial departure from New York City Ballet (NYCB) working in a traditional male to female structure learned from her classical ballet background. Whelan credited her transition into contemporary works for developing confidence in diversifying gender leadership and thinking bigger, which “ultimately gave her the courage to return to NYCB” in her current role as Associate Artistic Director. Whelan described her time away from NYCB as giving her tools to support current company artists with what she wanted and needed as a young dancer, lauding the value of collaboration for both ballet and contemporary artist development. Whelan had wanted to work with Childs (ballet dancers respond well to her movement vocabulary), and Beiser was familiar with Childs’ work with mutual colleague Philip Glass. Beiser valued Childs’ approach to music and movement, noting that “not all choreographers read music.” Beiser described Childs’ interpretation of the music as “broad and deep, with a complex polyrhythmic pattern.”

Read the full article on Broadway World.

Just Released: Global Resident Choreographer Survey

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Dance Data Project® (DDP) has conducted an initial examination of resident choreographer positions globally within the ballet industry.

DDP found that among the 116 international and U.S. ballet companies studied, a significant majority have hired men as resident choreographers. The study reveals that 37 of the 116 ballet companies surveyed globally employ resident choreographers. Twenty-eight of these 37 companies have placed exclusively men in this position (76%). Read the report here.

Read more

wfmt: Where Are the Women Composers? How Classical Music is Faring in the Fight for Gender Equality

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By Hannah Schiller

13 May 2019

American orchestras have taken some steps to represent women composers, but that there is still a long way to go. So says a newly-released study by Women’s Philharmonic Advocacy (WPA). This non-profit organization, which promotes the performance of works by women composers, analyzed the subscription series of 2019-20 seasons of the 21 American orchestras with the highest operating budgets.

Here were the two main findings of WPA’s research for the 2019-20 season:

  • 19% of composers featured will be women — 53 women composers out of 277 total across the 21 sampled orchestras
  • 8% of works that will be performed are composed by women — 79 works by women out of 927 works total programmed by the 21 sampled orchestras

These numbers both represent an increase from previous years. As WPA points out, all 21 orchestras have included at least one work by a woman in their 2019-20 season. The same could not be said for 2018-19, in which four orchestras (Chicago, Dallas, Pittsburgh, and Houston) did not present a single work by a woman composer in their flagship series. This uptick may suggest that orchestras are slowly but surely expanding the presence of women composers in their programming.

Read the full article on wfmt.

New York Times: Frida Kahlo Could Barely Walk. In This Ballet, She Dances.

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By Nina Siegal

17 January 2019

AMSTERDAM — Frida Kahlo’s vibrant art, turbulent life and tragic death at age 47 are certainly operatic. But the Mexican surrealist painter, who was left disabled by polio and a bus accident, might seem an unlikely subject for a ballet.

But that’s the medium Annabelle Lopez Ochoa, a choreographer who has also worked in flamenco, hip-hop and contemporary dance, has for her newest work, “Frida,” which will have its world premiere at the Dutch National Ballet on Feb. 6.

The ballet, which is based on the painter’s life — including her tempestuous relationship with her husband, the Mexican muralist Diego Rivera — does not linger on Kahlo’s physical disability, Ms. Lopez Ochoa said in a recent interview. Instead, it will animate her emotional world and artistic legacy, using dance.

Read the full article in the NY Times.

American Alliance of Museums: Women’s Locker Room Talk: Gender and Leadership in Museums

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By Kaywin Feldman

17 October 2016

Kaywin Feldman is the Duncan and Nivin MacMillan Director and President of the Minneapolis Institute of Art (Mia) since 2008. She also serves on the boards of National Arts Strategies, the Chipstone Foundation, and the American Alliance of Museums (AAM). She is a past president of the Association of Art Museum Directors, and a past chair of AAM. You can find Kaywin on Twitter @kaywinfeldman.

I turned 50 this summer and my father passed away last year. Both events led me to do a lot of thinking about who I am, where I came from, and what I want to leave behind (commonly referred to as a mid-life crisis). At around the same moment AAM generously invited me to take 10 minutes at the annual meeting to talk about any subject I wanted to address. So I spoke about gender bias from a personal perspective. A friend said to me, “someone offered you the bully pulpit and you took it.”

I am at a point in my career where I can speak about the subject of gender bias, and have plenty of experience to share. After 23 years as a museum director, it is gratifying to have the platform to speak out, coupled with a secure position. I knew when I was told at the start of my career that I was “too young and too female for a curator to report” to me that I had to keep quiet and move on; I had too much to lose and not much to gain by speaking out at that time.

I think a lot — and worry a lot — about our field becoming almost entirely female. We are a stronger, healthier, and more relevant profession the more diverse we are in every possible way. And, as noted in my speech given at the 2016 AAM Annual Meeting, when professions become mostly female, they become less well respected and more poorly paid. After all, if so many women can do the job, how hard can it really be? I am very worried about this gradual change and to be honest, not sure what to do about it. I hope that others will join me in grappling with this issue before it just happens and we have to claw our way back.

Read the full article on the American Alliance of Museums blog.

Nonprofit Quarterly: The Gender Divide in Ballet Leadership and Choreography

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By Jeanne Allen

September 18, 2015; WBUR (Boston Public Radio, “The ArtEry”)

In 1963, the Ford Foundation used the power of its grants to help create eight ballet companies across the U.S. Most of these companies were founded and cultivated by leading female artistic directors. Today, all of these companies are headed by men. Additionally, men also head the choreography.

According to a recent article on NPR, many of the current female leaders in the arts, and in ballet, seem to share similar perspectives. According to scholar Lynn Garafola,  “The more professional a company becomes, in my observation, the more likely women are going to disappear from the leadership positions, and they’re going to be replaced by men. I think this is very typical of organizations when they get larger, when they get more important.”

And, indeed, this is a dynamic that cuts across organizational types, as is reflected in this recent review of studies of nonprofit diversity profiles.

Twyla Tharp, the famous choreographer who started her own dance troupe 50 years ago, is touring this year to celebrate that lifetime achievement. She comments, about the vanishing number female choreographers, “It’s not a woman’s prerogative to be an artist. We all know women have a high hill to climb whatever they do.”

Why the change? Well, in ballet schools, girls outnumber boys by almost 20 to 1. This creates a “culture in which the boys are trained to be much more individuals, to do solos,” according to Rachel Moore, who will serve as CEO of the American Ballet Theatre until October 5th, when she leaves to take on the role of president and CEO of the Los Angeles Music Center. “Girls are taught to stand in line and be obedient.”

Read the full article on Nonprofit Quarterly.

Berks-Mont: Dance Theatre of Harlem performs at Kutztown University

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10 January 2020

KUTZTOWN — KU Presents! welcomes the Dance Theatre of Harlem, a singular presence in the ballet world celebrating its 50th anniversary season for a multi-day residency at Kutztown University.

Founded in 1969 by Arthur Mitchell and Karel Shook, the company tours internationally presenting a powerful vision for ballet in the 21st century. The 18-member, multi-ethnic company performs a forward-thinking repertoire that includes treasured classics, neoclassical works by George Balanchine and resident choreographer Robert Garland, as well as innovative contemporary works that use the language of ballet to celebrate African American culture. Through performances, community engagement, and arts education, the company carries forward Dance Theatre of Harlem’s message of empowerment through the arts for all.

Dance Theatre of Harlem will take the stage on Feb. 5 at 7:30 p.m. in Schaeffer Auditorium on the Kutztown University campus. Tickets are $42; $38 for students and seniors and can be purchased at www.KutztownPresents.org, or by calling the KU Presents! Box Office Tuesday through Friday 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. at 610-683-4092.

In addition to the public performance, the Dance Theatre of Harlem will be offering a lecture and demonstration for K-12 schools at 10 a.m. on Feb. 5. In this assembly performance, the company will speak about their history, how they started as a revolutionary, multi-ethnic dance company, and perform excerpts of their new works that highlight female choreographers, women of color, and African-American themes. 

Read the full article here.