A LITTLE STORY ABOUT THE INTERNATIONAL DOUBLE REED SOCIETY
In Geological Terms, they're not really that far behind.
This came to me by DM, right as the International Double Reed Society is getting ready to convene for its large yearly conference tomorrow. The IDRS is an organization whose DEI Committee I’ve sat on. (I resigned from that committee in disgust.) I’ve also won their big solo competition. I’ve appeared there many times but won’t do it again. And it’s because they have big problems they just stick their head in the sand about. It’s a concerted, institutional head-in-the-sand-sticking which I find especially problematic given their reach as the major oboe and bassoon organization of the world. I’ve written about them before. Maybe I’ll make a compilation post sometime soon. Until then, read this:
{REDACTED FORMER IDRS PRESIDENT} hit on me several times when I subbed with the {REDACTED ORCHESTRA.} The last time it happened, I told him my husband wasn't going to be pleased with his behavior. I was never hired to sub with them again.
I might as well tell you the next thing that happened: After the substitute experience, I was awarded a graduate assistantship for bassoon performance at {REDACTED UNIVERSITY}. I studied with {REDACTED DIFFERENT IMPORTANT IDRS WORKER}, now deceased, a BFM who, in addition to teaching, was {REDACTED at IDRS.} At the dress rehearsal of my final graduate recital, he asked me to go to his office and fetch his reed knife out of his bassoon case. Inside the pocket of his case, I found a bunch of pornographic pencil drawings of me (drawn from his imagination!) Horrified, I immediately went to the dept chair who, rather than censure {REDACTED DIFFERENT IMPORTANT IDRS WORKER and UNIVERSITY PROFESSOR}, told me it would be best and easiest if I changed my degree emphasis. I complied rather than waste two years of time, effort, and money.
And why am I not surprised by any of this? Because I know (and have told IDRS officers) that at least one of their Honorary Members (BFM1) slept with his students and used his BFMness to try to pressure other students to sleep with him during masterclasses he held. I know that another IDRS Honorary Member (BFM2) put BFM1 in rooms private-teaching BFM2’s underage students knowing full well BFM1’s predilection for abusing young men students. And how do I know that? Well, a third IDRS Honorary Member told me. I also know that I recently wrote still another IDRS Honorary Member (BFM4), a man I’d had a beer with a month prior, to ask him why he was participating on a big international competition jury with zero women. I asked him to please use his power to lobby for women on that jury. I also wrote him a follow-up. And I know that he and all the other men on that jury just completely ignored me, like my request and I were not worthy of their acknowledgement.
I also know that I applied for a position as the chair of an IDRS Competition, because I was really passionate about changing the repertoire for it. I talked specifics about what I would change the repertoire to in my interview and how this could be a catalyst for real, tangible change in oboe education worldwide. I suggested a fantastic Concerto by a dead woman that I have been responsible for resurrecting and putting into the public for the first time in 80 years. And I know that I didn’t get the (non-paying) job. Instead, I was passed over for a white man with far less experience and professional standing than I have. When the Vice President of the IDRS called to tell me (it’s always calling, right? never writing) that I didn’t get the job, and to ask if I had any questions, I asked him why they didn’t choose me. “We were more comfortable with {REDACTED.} It’s a personal feeling only; it’s not that you aren’t qualified.” And guess what they programmed in the end for the next contest? The very concerto which nobody would be playing right now unless I hadn’t dug it up, spent hundreds of hours with learning the orchestra parts from a handwritten ancient score at the piano, gotten it digitized, and made study recordings for.
Another big bonus is that they presented Harold Emert at their last conference, specifically knowing what he writes about women and the #metoo movement because I informed them in writing. They chose to present him anyway. I asked if it was because of his oboe playing. No, it’s because of the diversity he represents as a Brazilian. Oh, okay then. Then I heard he didn’t even pay his conference attendance fees but forced himself in anyway.
While I myself will never appear at one of their conferences again unless some major institutional attitude change makes itself apparent, my Heckelphone piece will be there next week. I think that’s kinda funny. Mr. Needleman says that all this stuff I write about in Classical Music isn’t really all that behind the times in geological terms. And my piece is about space and planets and stuff!
A LITTLE NOTE FROM ME TO IDRS: I will reveal the names of your former president and officer mentioned in the DM above, with the blessing of the writer, to you should you care to know. I’m quite sure you’re not actually really interested. But you know where to find me if I’m wrong.
ETA: Here’s a little follow up a couple hours after this post with Harold Emert:
