But why are there so few female conductors?

Claire Gibault conducting the Paris Mozart Orchestra.

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• From September 15 to 18, a competition will be held at the Philharmonie de Paris La Maestra to select and then accompany female conductors.

• There are only 4% of female conductors in France, a situation that changes only very slowly.

• “These are the men who are at the head of the major musical institutions, and therefore they hire more men than women.

  Because it's their network, because it's their habits, ”explains chef Claire Gibault, who initiated the competition.

  
  

A tiny percentage: in France and around the world, conductors are extremely rare.

4% in France, according to figures from the Society of Dramatic Authors and Composers.

There is only one female conductor of one of the 30 permanent orchestras, the most prestigious orchestras, and has been since ... September 1, 2020. It is Debora Waldman, just appointed head of the orchestra of Avignon, even though there are as many women as men in the conservatories.

Globally, the situation is no different, with only 48 permanent symphony orchestras led by women, out of 778 (or 6%).

It is to change this reality that the Philharmonie and the Paris Mozart Orchestra are launching La Maestra, a competition that will take place from September 15 to 18 at the Philharmonie de Paris (and on Arte), with the aim of making known female conductors of orchestra, and to accompany the three best candidates to the highest peaks.

A total of 220 women, of 51 nationalities, presented themselves.

Thirteen will compete in the playoffs on September 15 and 16 and three will receive staggering prizes after the final on September 18.

With the aim of "arousing vocations" and "offering the youngest of them a support which they often did not fully benefit from during their training course".

Biologizing sexism

"Without voluntarism, there is no evolution", insists Laurent Bayle, president of the Philharmonie de Paris.

"It is not a question of eliminating men, but of giving a place to women who have talent", wants to reassure Claire Gibault, at the head of the Paris Mozart Orchestra, which had this not so crazy idea.

Little music begins to germinate in September 2018, in Mexico City, after being a member of the jury for an international orchestral conducting competition.

She is then the only woman out of five people, and witnesses sexist remarks.

A conductor explains to him that his doctor would have told him "that women cannot be conductors" for "biological" reasons: "He told me that they had their arms turned towards the before, to hold babies in their arms, ”she recalls.

This anecdote alone illustrates that the most archaic prejudices and stereotypes have not yet left the world of classical music.

But how did we come to this?

There have indeed been women conductors in the history of the orchestra.

Augusta Holmès in the 19th century conducted her own symphonies, with Wagnerian accents, explains researcher Hyacinthe Ravet.

Ethel Smyth wielded the wand alongside her suffragist activities, from 1911. Nadia Boulanger was in the 1930s a chef of great renown.

But "they were exceptional figures", explains the author of

(Editions Autrement, 2011).

“You lead like a woman!

"

This exceptional climate lasted throughout the 20th century and continues today.

Claire Gibault remembers an article in the

newspaper

from 1969, which recounted her beginnings as a conductor, and headlined, alongside an article on the American astronaut Neil Armstrong entitled "A man walked on the moon ”:“ A woman conducted an orchestra.

The Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra waited until 1997 before welcoming the first woman into its ranks: they were simply banned until that date.

The chef Mélisse Brunet.

- DR

The few female chiefs who officiate today have had to face many obstacles.

Mélisse Brunet, musical director (the permanent conductor of an orchestra, alongside other conductors or guest conductors) of an orchestra in Pennsylvania, remembers a professor who reproached her, when she was 18, for her manner of dress and lead "like a woman".

Debora Waldman noticed that she was always given the “family” concerts, educational concerts where parents come with their children.

Or concerts with participative, or lessons.

Much less the "big" concerts.

She presented herself four times in ten years for permanent positions of chiefs, and ended up obtaining that of Avignon.

Modest, she refutes the idea of ​​having been discriminated against, but still remembers a competition where she thought "it was a mistake" not to have taken it.

Co-optation and intellectual laziness

Why does this sexism persist?

There are first of all reasons common to all circles, and in particular the phenomenon of "boy clubs", described by the professor of feminist studies Martine Delvaux: "These are the men who are at the head of the great musical institutions, and therefore they hire more men than women.

Because it's their network, because it's their habits, ”explains Claire Gibault.

This cooptation between men is reinforced by a purely marketing logic: "It is men who are the best known today, and as marketing is necessary for communication [of institutions], they take men", adds Claire Gibault, author of

(Éditions L'Iconoclaste).

“They think about profit first.

To appoint women is to take a risk.

And it's also a lack of field work, intellectual laziness.

This means that all the talents available in the world have passed through a funnel: they are always the same, ”says Mélisse Brunet.

A real vicious circle.

"Irreplaceable" experience

Laurent Bayle explains a somewhat similar mechanism, but with a slightly different point of view.

For the president of the Philharmonie, "the 80-year-old conductors are the most sought after", because of the accumulated know-how.

He cites the example of Daniel Barenboim, 78, who celebrated his 70th birthday in Salzburg this summer: “You can be more skilled with your hands than him, there is something about his experience that he passes on to his an orchestra which is irreplaceable, ”explains Laurent Bayle.

Music is one of the few areas where people continue to practice at a very advanced age.

"There are other areas where the place of women is obvious: opera, dance, theater ... Music in itself is not gendered so it has been monopolized by men", also explains Claire Gibault.

Phantasmagoria of women who lead with a wand

Conductor, it is also symbolically the position of authority par excellence, a position of visible, dazzling domination, that it is much more difficult for male pride to yield to women, obliged for centuries to embody softness, roundness, submission.

"There is a form of staging power with this phantasmagoria of women who lead with the baton, especially as they lead a social body, the orchestra, in which there are still on average more men. that there are women, ”explains Hyacinthe Ravet, who also wrote

.

(Vrin, 2015)

"If women are too demonstrative we think they are authoritarian, if they are too gentle we will say they do not know how to impose themselves, this gives rise to contradictory injunctions", adds the sociologist and musicologist.

A turning point in 2019?

Are things changing?

Undeniably.

But slowly, recognize all the people we interviewed.

A boost was made in the 1970s, which has now made it possible to have 30% of women in orchestras.

The last few years have accelerated things, since MeToo but probably a little earlier, MeToo being in a way only the indicator of deeper changes.

The president of the Philharmonic affirms that his institution started working on the subject in 2016, at a time when the program of his institution only included 8% of guest conductors.

The 2019-2020 season has 24%.

“It is from 2019 that the female leaders became visible.

Suddenly we saw a lot of women, it was really striking, ”confirms Débora Waldman.

charter

The injunctions of the former Minister of Culture, Françoise Nyssen, in 2018, "have never been respected but have had an impact on awareness," said Laurent Bayle.

In the process, the French Association of Orchestras signed a charter promising in particular to "ensure the presence of conductors in the pre-selection tests for positions of musical direction".

“It's no longer a non-question.

At the end of the 1990s, when I started to work on the subject, I was told "it will happen, it will come, you are an activist", then we realize that we can no longer pretend that the question did not arise ”, testifies Hyacinthe Ravet.

Who immediately quotes the philosopher Geneviève Fraisse, for whom “equality does not grow like green grass”.

Tracks

It is not easy to change practices that have been in place for decades, if not hundreds of years.

"Old Europe has a delay in ignition", laments Laurent Bayle.

To remedy this, joint juries, or the model of university orchestras abroad, with young conductors to get their hands on, are avenues, notes Claire Gibault.

Like Mélisse Brunet, who was chosen to head the entire University of Michigan.

The Paris orchestra, integrated into the Philharmonie in early 2019, has set itself the goal of inviting at least six female conductors per year.

Because it is perhaps also here that we can make things happen: according to Hyacinthe Ravet, there are 20% of women at the head of non-permanent groups.

Sets that they often created themselves, like that of Claire Gibault or of Laurence Equilbey's Insula Orchestra and Chœur Accentus.

The importance of models

These women leaders, finally made visible, will allow young women to imagine a future, wand in hand.

"When a woman is the director of a conservatory, she makes young women see that it is possible and that we can succeed," said Claire Gibault, who had to "invent her way" at a time when there was no had no female role model, or so few.

Mélisse Brunet remembers how much having seen the Accentus Choir, on Arte, conducted by Laurence Equilbey, had an impact on her: “It inspired me enormously, confirmed my choice.

For me that was it.

"

Debora Waldman, 43 years old today, was lucky enough to have a mother conductor, before discovering the gaping void on the subject.

“I did not understand why we did not know any woman in the greatest conductors.

I thought I was the problem, I understood only four years ago that it was social and political.

Among her models are the Finnish chef Susanna Mälkki, the American Marin Alsop, but also… Rabbi Delphine Horvilleur and Chancellor Angela Merkel.

“If we want there to be more female conductors, we have to build vocations, it's a long-term process.

We need posters with women - conductors, composers, wind instrumentalists… - in the conservatories, we must encourage these vocations in educational fields, and give the opportunity to lead to those who are learning, ”Hyacinthe Ravet analyzes.

Hence the importance of the La Maestra competition, to say that the chefs are there.

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• La Maestra, at the Philharmonie de Paris.

Qualifying and semi-final rounds: Tuesday September 15 (7 pm-11:30pm);

Wednesday September 16 (7 pm-11pm);

Thursday September 17 (2.30 p.m.-5.30 p.m. and 7 p.m.-10 p.m.

At the "Studio".

Final on September 18 (2:30 p.m.-6 p.m.) in the Grande Salle Pierre Boulez.

Online broadcast on arte.tv.

Final concert on September 18 with the Paris Mozart Orchestra (7:30 p.m.) - € 12

RESERVATIONS: 01 44 84 44 84 or

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