"So angry" is black-belt level misogyny. You get to dismiss the concern, patronize and gaslight the woman making it, and wear a cheap moral halo, all in one move.
(Greetings from the comments section two days in a row. I'm trying to be a little more engaged on Substack these days. It seems like a non-awful social media platform, and it would be nice to build some momentum/community here.)
Ugh, so depressing. I know of sections in SF Symphony that have fewer women than a few years ago. :( Of course, with FOUR openings in the horn section, maybe some women will get hired.
Thank you for putting out some of the best information in this field and doing the type of work normally done by investigative journalists and Op Ed writers. (Especially since it's unpaid and IN ADDITION to your multiple day jobs and personal life.) You're certainly inspiring me to find ways to contribute, and I imagine I'm not the only one.
Rebecca, Katherine, and others - thank you for your posts about your experiences in college and in the profession. I am a woman who graduated from a Big Fancy Conservatory with a BM and MM in the 90s. After I graduated from college, I won a place in a prominent "Training Orchestra". It was then that I started to understand that for people who are not white men, winning a seat in a good orchestra wasn't only about hard work and talent. I still remember how shocked and disappointed I felt when I made this realization. Reading about other women's experiences gives me a new perspective on a lot of things that didn't make sense to me as a young person. I wish I had known at that time the full extent of the truly awful experiences of my female peers. Unfortunately, they weren't acknowledged or discussed, only passed along through the rumor mill. I was naive then. I understand that this is an uphill battle, but every day that I read these posts online, I feel a little bit hopeful and immensely proud of all of the women musicians who are openly sharing their experiences and asking for acknowledgement, accountability, and change.
Katherine, it is so satisfying to read you telling misogynists to STFU! after receiving the STFU message from harassers and discriminators for decades it’s refreshing to enjoy the tables turned for a brief moment.
Another tactic of the “but the screen was up!” Crew is this- the Gas Lighting Symphony who shall remain unnamed (but the rhythm is the same!) had at least two personnel managers I know of that actively relayed information about screened candidates to the audition committee, miscounted secret ballots from screened rounds, and allowed multiple reveals of screened candidates’ gender. The last went as far as punishing reporters of gender reveals. (That’s active discrimination, but the Gas Lighting Symphony is also propping up a sexual predator MD) Sure, “Not all Orchestras!” But one is too many.
Thank for telling the “but blind!” Crew to shove their misogyny up their respective valves with a bass endpin.
I think that for a while it was reasonable for people not directly involved in the industry (ie, not musicians actually participating in the audition process from either side, not orchestra administrators, etc.) to actually believe that auditions are blind, because that's what everyone's been saying for decades now: "everything changed when the curtain went up and orchestras started having blind auditions".
So it may really be news to a lot of people just how non-blind the "blind" auditions are. When you can selectively invite the people you want to audition based on their resumes, promote your buddies to the semi-final round without going through the first two rounds, take the screen down just one round later, make them play a trial week or two with the orchestra in competition with another finalist before getting hired, and then survive for at least a year or two to get tenure, then no, it can't really be called a "blind" audition process at all.
As you said, if anyone who wanted to audition could audition (instead of being selectively invited), everyone played from the first round, with all rounds blind including the final, and then the orchestra was guaranteed to hire and give tenure to whoever won, THEN it would be a truly blind process.
Girls can play the oboe, flute, and clarinet. Manly pursuits, such as brass and low strings, are the realm of men. And only men. This is why women make crap police officers, infantrymen, and firefighters. There are just some things better left up to women, and some things better left up to men.
"So angry" is black-belt level misogyny. You get to dismiss the concern, patronize and gaslight the woman making it, and wear a cheap moral halo, all in one move.
Yes, we're angry. Why aren't you?
I enthusiastically recommend Rebecca Traister's Good and Mad if you haven't already read it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xj7gSfP0tLM
(Greetings from the comments section two days in a row. I'm trying to be a little more engaged on Substack these days. It seems like a non-awful social media platform, and it would be nice to build some momentum/community here.)
Ugh, so depressing. I know of sections in SF Symphony that have fewer women than a few years ago. :( Of course, with FOUR openings in the horn section, maybe some women will get hired.
Thank you for putting out some of the best information in this field and doing the type of work normally done by investigative journalists and Op Ed writers. (Especially since it's unpaid and IN ADDITION to your multiple day jobs and personal life.) You're certainly inspiring me to find ways to contribute, and I imagine I'm not the only one.
Rebecca, Katherine, and others - thank you for your posts about your experiences in college and in the profession. I am a woman who graduated from a Big Fancy Conservatory with a BM and MM in the 90s. After I graduated from college, I won a place in a prominent "Training Orchestra". It was then that I started to understand that for people who are not white men, winning a seat in a good orchestra wasn't only about hard work and talent. I still remember how shocked and disappointed I felt when I made this realization. Reading about other women's experiences gives me a new perspective on a lot of things that didn't make sense to me as a young person. I wish I had known at that time the full extent of the truly awful experiences of my female peers. Unfortunately, they weren't acknowledged or discussed, only passed along through the rumor mill. I was naive then. I understand that this is an uphill battle, but every day that I read these posts online, I feel a little bit hopeful and immensely proud of all of the women musicians who are openly sharing their experiences and asking for acknowledgement, accountability, and change.
Katherine, it is so satisfying to read you telling misogynists to STFU! after receiving the STFU message from harassers and discriminators for decades it’s refreshing to enjoy the tables turned for a brief moment.
Another tactic of the “but the screen was up!” Crew is this- the Gas Lighting Symphony who shall remain unnamed (but the rhythm is the same!) had at least two personnel managers I know of that actively relayed information about screened candidates to the audition committee, miscounted secret ballots from screened rounds, and allowed multiple reveals of screened candidates’ gender. The last went as far as punishing reporters of gender reveals. (That’s active discrimination, but the Gas Lighting Symphony is also propping up a sexual predator MD) Sure, “Not all Orchestras!” But one is too many.
Thank for telling the “but blind!” Crew to shove their misogyny up their respective valves with a bass endpin.
I think that for a while it was reasonable for people not directly involved in the industry (ie, not musicians actually participating in the audition process from either side, not orchestra administrators, etc.) to actually believe that auditions are blind, because that's what everyone's been saying for decades now: "everything changed when the curtain went up and orchestras started having blind auditions".
So it may really be news to a lot of people just how non-blind the "blind" auditions are. When you can selectively invite the people you want to audition based on their resumes, promote your buddies to the semi-final round without going through the first two rounds, take the screen down just one round later, make them play a trial week or two with the orchestra in competition with another finalist before getting hired, and then survive for at least a year or two to get tenure, then no, it can't really be called a "blind" audition process at all.
As you said, if anyone who wanted to audition could audition (instead of being selectively invited), everyone played from the first round, with all rounds blind including the final, and then the orchestra was guaranteed to hire and give tenure to whoever won, THEN it would be a truly blind process.
Girls can play the oboe, flute, and clarinet. Manly pursuits, such as brass and low strings, are the realm of men. And only men. This is why women make crap police officers, infantrymen, and firefighters. There are just some things better left up to women, and some things better left up to men.