DEAR LORENZO MASALA

Let's talk about 30 years ago... and wars.

Dear Lorenzo Masala,

Thank you for your public commentary on my page today, given in response to my post about the three oboe finalists of the Prague Spring International Music competition. You described the three finalists as white, European, Christian men.

Since you are such an innovative pillar of the oboe community, I will respond to you in a very different tone than the one you used to address me, a complaining nobody. While I would like to see your use of “stupid, old, mean” and “cheap” with words like “dumbass,” “predictable,” and “clueless,” I won’t. I also won’t say something nasty and then put a smiley emoji next to it. What does that even mean? “I know I introduced myself rudely, and I’m so cute?” Or, “I love calling you stupid?” I’m genuinely curious.

I’m “at least 30 years late with this stupid male female differences.” Okay, let’s talk about 30 years ago, I’ll go there. This is a common trope I hear from men who get offended by my social media presence. One of them, David Blumberg, a pillar of the clarinet community whom I hold four peace orders against because he likes to threaten me, including with chainsaw recordings over what I write, also wrote something once to the effect of, “Things are so much better now than they were thirty years ago; you shouldn’t be complaining.” I’m guessing that’s where you’re trying to go, too. Since you and he think things are so much better now (you even went on to say you know so many “very good women playing and teaching in major American universities and orchestra, as well in Europe”), you mean to say that I am a whiny, complaining woman. You said I should teach my students “not to complain all the time that if you don’t have something, it’s because someone else stole it.” I should be grateful for what we women have and just shut up and be nice. I should congratulate the finalists and motivate others.

Thirty years ago was 1995. This was the year I auditioned for and entered the Curtis Institute of Music. When I was there, I played for no women conductors, teachers, or masterclass artists. I played all works by men composers, except for a premiere by a woman composer colleague I had to keep a secret from my teacher. The orchestra I idolized down the street had no women principal oboists in its entire history, and in fact no women principals in the woodwind section ever in its entire history (I was pretty obsessed with woodwinds.) The principal players in the biggest orchestras in other cities in the US were also all men, and historically so as well. Across the pond, in Europe, the oboe principals of the biggest orchestras there were also all men. The Vienna Philharmonic did not even allow women to audition at that point. The music director at the Big, Fancy Orchestra down the street from me was a man, and had always been a man. The leader of our country was a man and had always been a man. He cheated on his wife with a young intern and lied about it but kept doing his job anyway, without serious repercussions despite getting publicly embarrassed. I was in college, spending time with boys, and I had easy access to birth control and reproductive health care.

How is it different and better today? Well, there is now one woman teaching in the woodwind performance department at Curtis—that’s me. People play some short pieces by women composers sometimes now too, but not at the Prague Spring International Music Competition for oboe. That orchestra down the street I mentioned, the one I idolized where my teacher played? Still has never had a woman principal oboist or other woman principal woodwind player. Still has never had a woman music director. Those biggest orchestras in Europe? Same. The leader of my country is a different philandering womanizer. He’s much worse than the one we had thirty years ago and despite being convicted of “sexual abuse,” which sounds a lot like rape to me, and saying things about women such as “grabbing them by the pussy,” he was elected over both the woman who got cheated on thirty years ago and another super-qualified and not despicable woman. And we’ve still never had a woman leader of our country. The Vienna Philharmonic does allow women to audition now, so I guess I should be happy and just shut up, right?

Mr. Masala, please forgive me if I am not jumping up and down about how much better things are now than thirty years ago. You might be, and your perspective might be different because of your gender. Oh, back to that reproductive health care stuff? I’m thankfully so old I don’t worry about this now. But I’m absolutely terrified for my daughters who are getting ready to go to college.

I’m sorry you think I “complain all the time.” Again, I think that might be a difference of perspective about what is acceptable based upon our differences in gender and experience. Back to that competition? Men like you often like to say that there is a “pipeline” problem which leads to men-only finals. Well, in this Prague Spring International Music Competition, there were six women out of twelve semifinalists, so no pipeline issues. And this one time, maybe you could be right, and all six of them weren’t good enough. Maybe it was “luck, good moods, good reeds” and all of that this one time. But if it were, we’d see just as often six men getting all cut from the semifinals leaving all-women finals.

Can you imagine what people would have said if there were all women in the finals? Or if there were all women in the finals of the recent Munich ARD and Geneva oboe competitions, which have never had a woman first prize winner, not now and not 30 years ago?

If this is all about who is “the best at that one moment,” I wouldn’t have been able to post about another competition that very same day whose senior wind division had 25 semifinalists, just one of whom was a woman.

Can you imagine what people would have said if there were a competition where there was just one man out of 25 people in the semifinals?

The competition is rigged! The jury are men haters! It’s DEI! They’re not concerned about quality!

But when it is women getting the short end of the stick instead of men, we start talking about “what about” the red and yellow people, the Buddhist people, and the Muslim people.

We can’t hope for other marginalized groups to have a chance if we can’t even give women, who make a majority of our beloved European white population, as well as a majority of just about every other marginalized population, a chance. Posting a picture with your mom for Mother’s Day and saying you know good women oboists doesn’t make you an expert in the state of women.

For someone who is clearly so beloved and good at what he does, Mr. Masala, you are a disappointment. You don’t live up to your reputation in my view.

Sincerely,

Katherine Needleman

P.S. My “stupid mentality, dividing people” which is contributing to “enough wars in the world?” Please name for me the wars in the world right now, or thirty years ago, or even historically, in which women like me are playing a role. If you’d like, I can name you plenty of wars where misogynists and racists have been principal players.

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After I wrote this post, Mr. Masala added more commentary to the original post which I did not have at the time of this response. You can view the original Facebook post here, and here is a comment worth preserving:

Masala “loved” this comment on June 2, 2025. Oboist Keshet Seidel “liked” it, along with conductor/pianist Rolf Prejean, and euphoniumist Daniel Rehberg.