Suanshu Khurana’s article highlights the Oscar winning documentary that speaks of classical music’s gendered world. In the 1960s, noted conductor Zubin Mehta was at the peak of his professional eminence, he made a remark about women musicians in classical orchestras.
‘A woman’s life in the orchestra is not as long as a man’s; she is just not as good at 60 as a man is’ he had said , a statement echoing the sexism in prestigious orchestras.
He was 30 years old & the conductor of the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra where he had once imposed a limit of 16 on the number of women in the orchestra. It was probably a carry over from his days at the all female Vienna Philharmonic, his learning ground & the first orchestra he would conduct.
A Time magazine article in 1966 spoke of how ‘women were ill tuned to the rigours of the symphony life & played erratically during menstruation or when they were concerned about family problems’
Does n’t it prove that she works twice as hard & gets no concession. If a child or the elder in the family is sick, she is expected to take a leave of absence. Why can’t her partner share the burden? His work is work & her work is ???
The same article called double bassist Orin O’Brien, the first woman to join the New York Philharmonic Orchestra full time under the direction of Leonard Bernstein -Mehta’s colleague & friend – ‘as curvy as the double bass she plays’.
It forgot to mention her arduous training & musical excellence or that she was an usher at Carnegie Hall for two years & imbibed every note with the utmost attention.
Almost half a century later, a documentary made by her niece Molly O’Brien, ‘The Only Girl in the Orchestra’ which tells the story of her struggles & successes, has won an Academy award for the Best Documentary short film.
A true win for the spirit of music & passion shown by both the women. Every woman works twice as much as a man, has to fight for her place & endure till the end.
It’s interesting how O’Brien , who retired from the orchestra in 2021, after a 55 -year long career, did not want a film to be made on her. She told her niece she was not important enough. The daughter of movie actors George O’Brien & Margaret Churchill, she would shrink from attention, thinking that the other members , the men, would resent her for it.
Women had to work doubly hard & yet listen to things like’ your place is in the kitchen’ as Austrian conductor Hans Swarowsky once told Lelkes. The gender gap sounds shocking in this day & age but it continues to exist in many orchestras. But the tide is also turning.
Women recently surpassed the number of men in the New York Philharmonic Orchestra . There are 45 women & 44 men. This little win may not heal the years of explicit bias, but it’s start.
O’Brien now 89 years old, is still teaching the nuances of double bass . The attention at the Oscars may have fazed her. Perhaps she hid behind her giant double bass & tinkered with it.
A salute to all those greats who have made our life worth living.
Asian Entertainment 