hogglestock

This is the third year I have populated a database with subscription season concert information for North American orchestras. The original (and ongoing) purpose is primarily to see what repertoire is playing where to determine where I might go hear music that is harder to find in person. I’m lucky to have both the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra and National Symphony Orchestra performing about five miles from my house (although in different venues), but last season I also trekked to Buffalo, Cleveland, Cincinatti, Detroit, and Nashville. (I also had a ticket for Atlanta, but the Ives symphony I wanted to hear was mysteriously taken off the program, so I saved the cost of a plane ticket and hotel and didn’t go.)

(Venezuelan conductor Glass Marcano will conduct the Orchestre Métropolitain in works by Tchaikovsky, Revueltas, Moncayo, and Orrego-Salas in May 2024)

The first year, I only looked at 19 orchestras, last year I upped that to 51, and this year I did about 64, I think. For purposes of consistency and comparison I didn’t expand my analysis of women conductors beyond the 51 I looked at last year. (And even then, I reduced that number by three because of lack of information or, in the case of the SPCO, a largely conductorless approach.) If you scroll through my blog a bit, you will see all the ways I sliced and diced that data last year related to rep and composers, but for now, I’d like to look at women conductors for the 2023/2024 season.

an unfortunate downtick

The big news for the 23/24 season is that as a percentage of total concerts programmed, women conductors are only conducting 17% of them, down from last year’s 18%.

(Click on the image to see the details.)

The good news is, a lot of orchestras made some marked improvement over last season, and none more notable than the Cleveland Orchestra. Last year I rightly gave them a fair amount of crap on Twitter because they had zero women conductors in their subscription season. Given how few of their subscription concerts are conducted by their music director (Welser-Möst), they could certainly do better than only three, but that is a 300% improvement for them. So look out for Dalia Stasevska, Barbara Hannigan, and Susanna Mälkki on the august Cleveland podium next season.

After my disappointment that my hometown band, the Minnesota Orchestra went with yet another man to be their new music director, it was nice that they upped their game in getting more female guest conductors for next season, but perhaps if they had done that sooner their MD decision may have been different. (Incidentally, I was quoted in an article in the StarTribune‘s reporting on Minnesota’s choice and was labeled by an offended commentor that it was clear from my blog that I was **obsessed** with race and gender.)

women music directors

With the exit of Marin Alsop at the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, we were in danger of not having a major U.S. orchestra with a female music director but then the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra stepped in and kept that from happening with their appointment of Nathalie Stutzman. What’s even better is that Atlanta has three women guest conducting next season as well. The other orchestras with women music directors (Buffalo, Hartford, New Jersey, and Richmond) all lost ground in the percentage of concerts conducted by women, with none of them programming a woman guest conductor for any concert.

(Nathalie Stutzmann, music director of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra)

And speaking of music directors, it appears that the Seattle Symphony is looking for new one. I’m hopeful that their strong showing last year and even stronger showing this year means they will be appointing a woman MD in the near future. One can hope.

(Is Shiyeon Sung on Seattle’s shortlist for music director? Next season she conducts them as well as the Detroit, Edmonton, Pacific, and Vancouver orchestras.)

big losers

The “big” old grand orchestras of the rust belt and northeast sure do have a problem prying the baton out of the clutches of old white European men. Given the fact that they have a whopping 31 concerts in their season, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra is perhaps the most disappointing with only three women (Elim Chan, Susanna Mälkki, and Gemma New) on the podium. The disappointment is compounded by the fact that they are looking for a new music director, so pretty much all of those 31 concerts are guest conductors presumably auditioning for the job, (Their now former MD, Ricardo Muti is only conducting two concerts next season. )

Other big guys that could do a lot better include Boston, Detroit, Pittsburgh, and St. Louis to name a few. Another loser in this category is the National Symphony Orchestra. With Noseda only conducting eight of their 20 concerts, they could surely do better than only having two women conducting (Simone Young and Xian Zhang).

(Joana Carneiro will conduct the Detroit Symphony Orchestra in November 2023 in works by Stravinsky, de Falla, and Mason Bates.)

A special negative shoutout also goes to the New World Symphony which has 19 subscription concerts and the only one being conducted by a woman (Lina Gonzales-Granados) is a concerto showcase with no actual programming. Why is this academy reinforcing bad habits?

Although women conductors have lost a bit of ground, one positive aspect is that more women are included this year. Last year the list only had 41 conductors on it, this year it’s up to 52.

(Anna Sulkowska-Migon will conduct the Philadelphia Orchestra in January 2024 in works by Tchaikovsky, Yun, and Nowowiejski.)

(One of the august old guard, Jane Glover will lead the New York Philharmonic, Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, and the North Carolina Symphony next season.)