SOME VERRRRY LOW DOUBLE BASS NUMBERS

supplied by Nina DeCesare

Thanks to Nina DeCesare, the lone woman double bassist in my orchestra, for compiling these dismal statistics, which I have organized and commented on here for you.

The following are a selection of US orchestras with zero women in their bass sections today. Please note how many of these orchestras are amongst the most highly paid and prestigious in the US:

• Boston Symphony 0/8

• Buffalo Philharmonic 0/7

• Cincinnati Symphony 0/6

• Cleveland Orchestra 0/8

• Chicago Symphony 0/9

• Detroit Symphony 0/6

• Houston Symphony 0/8

• Los Angeles Philharmonic 0/10

• Lyric Opera of Chicago 0/5

• Metropolitan Opera 0/5

• National Symphony 0/8

• New York Philharmonic 0/8

• North Carolina Symphony 0/5

• Rochester Philharmonic 0/7

• San Francisco Symphony 0/9

• Philadelphia Orchestra 0/8

• Pittsburgh Symphony 0/9

• Utah Symphony 0/8

(That’s zero out of 134 players in the above orchestras.)

The following are a selection of US orchestras with one woman in their double bass section. An asterisk is next to the name of the orchestra with a woman principal bass player. In parentheses afterward is the year the woman was hired to the section:

• Atlanta Symphony 1/6 (1984)

• Baltimore Symphony 1/7 (2019)

• Colorado Symphony 1/7 (2024)

• Dallas Symphony 1/7 (1979)

• Fort Worth Symphony 1/5 (cannot find date)

• Indianapolis Symphony* 1/7 (2003)

• Kansas City Symphony 1/6

• Milwaukee Symphony 1/6 (2022)

• Nashville Symphony 1/7 (2014)

• San Diego Symphony 1/7 (2004)

• Seattle Symphony 1/7 (1999)

• St Louis Symphony 1/7 (2004)

• Oregon Symphony 1/5 (2022)

(That’s 13 women out of 84 players in the above orchestras. The woman in Kansas City is a one-year rather than tenure track appointment.)

The following is the only major US orchestra we know with two whole women in their double bass section. An asterisk is next to the name of this orchestra because it also has a woman principal bass player. In parentheses afterward are the years the women were hired:

• Minnesota Orchestra* 2/8 (2009 and 2014)

(That’s 15 women out of 226 players in the above 32 orchestras or 6.6%.)

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With regard to the asterisked orchestras above, the two women who hold principal bass positions are Ju-Fang Liu of the Indianapolis Symphony and Kristen Bruya of the Minnesota Orchestra (pictured below, l to r.) Since 2013, we believe there are three instances of women winning trials at principal bass auditions but not being hired to those chairs.

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But things are getting better, right? We just need time for things to improve.

According to this list of double bass audition winners, in 2017, there were more women bass players in these orchestras than today. Nina attributes this to trailblazers such as Orin O’Brien, Betsy Heston, and Jane Little departing since then but not being replaced. Additionally, there were four orchestras then with two women double bass players, but they all reduced to one, so now it is just Minnesota left in that category. Below, you can compare numbers (women/total) from 2017 (first) to today’s numbers (second). Orchestras with decreasing numbers of women in their bass sections (9) are emboldened and orchestras with increasing numbers of women in their double bass sections (2) are italicized:

In 2017, 9.6% of the bass sections of these orchestras were women, but today, they are only 6.6%. In 2017, there were 22 women bass players in these orchestras, but today, there are only 15. That’s about 32% fewer women today.

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Why do you think this is? I’d probably be interested to hear from you. But, if you want to write here that it’s all about quality, and that them’s just the breaks for women at all-blind auditions, I’d encourage you to read through my page first.

Additionally, I’d be curious if you think these mostly white male sections should be obligated to hire women, other gender-marginalized people, Black, and brown people from their sub pool first. Would that be unfair? Or would it be hiring people on the basis of their gender and race? (And if so, were the white men not hired on their basis of their gender and race?)