“Just call me, Maestra”

The role of the conductor, and classical music’s ongoing issues with

racism, sexism, and anti-Semitism

What does a conductor do?

Job Description: Leads rehearsals and provides artistic

vision (interpretation)

Provides cues, cut-offs

Ensures rhythmic precision, ensemble, and musical excellence during performance

PR (fundraising, etc.)

“Conductors”

Duple Meter

Triple and Quadruple Meters

What’s gender got to do with it?

“Men make better conductors….” “[a] sweet girl on the podium can make one’s thoughts drift towards something else.” – Vasily Petrenko (2013)

“3 women are already too many, by the time we have 20% the orchestra will be ruined.” – VPO string player (2003)

What’s race got to do with it?

“Vienna Philharmonic is an orchestra of white men playing music by white men for white people.” – Werner Resel, former VPO chairman (1996, later resigned)

VPO first admitted women before US tour in 1997 (after threats of US boycott)

“I auditioned for an orchestra, and I led in the point tabulations as long as I played behind a screen. Due to my name it was not apparent that I am Asian. But when the screen was removed, I was rejected without comment. Friends in the orchestra confirmed my assumption. They do not take foreigners, and if they do, then only those in which [foreign appearance] is not visible.”

The VPO’s argument for racism “From the beginning we have spoken of the special

Viennese qualities, of the way music is made here. The way we make music here is not only a technical ability, but also something that has a lot to do with the soul. The soul does not let itself be separated from the cultural roots that we have here in central Europe, and it also doesn’t allow itself to be separated from gender….Therefore, I am convinced that it is worthwhile to accept this racist and sexist irritation, because something produced by a superficial understanding of human rights would not have the same standards.” – Dieter Flury, VPO flutist (1996)

Anti-Semitism and the VPO “extensive and willing” collaboration with the

Nazi party during WWII (approx. 50%) Jewish composer Gustav Mahler resigned from

his post in 1907 as director due to anti-Semitism (later directed NY Phil.)

In 1966, VPO director (and former SS-member) presented former Hitler-youth leader with VPO ring of honor, after his release from prison

Leonard Bernstein debuted with the orchestra that same year (he didn’t known about ring)

Bernstein and Solti Though Jewish, both conducted the VPO,

producing some of the best recordings of the 20th century

“They are not coming because you are a dirty, Hungarian Jew.” – call to Solti to explain why VPO committee did not attend an award ceremony for a collaborative recording.

7 VPO members were killed in the Holocaust (only 2 Jews in current VPO)

Solti’s letter to young Bernstein “As another Jewish conductor, I understand

your feelings surely better than anyone else. If somebody, after the Nazi horrors, does not want to work with a German or Austrian orchestra, as is the case with several Jewish artists, I understand only too well. I have been through great soul searching in the past about this, and several times have been on the verge of breaking contact with them.”

VPO Today In July 2011, the Austrian

government cut VPO funding by 2.29 million euros for sex discrimination

VPO’s chairman responded, “In art, you cannot impose quotas.”

Current director of VSO, “Are we faced with a phenomenon of Asianization,’ much like the ‘Americanization’ of a century ago?”