(Image from Xian Zhang's website.)
In 2024 it's a notable event when a woman wins a permanent management position in a top tier orchestra (however "top" is defined). My attention was immediately drawn to news that "Xian Zhang was hired Thursday (a little over a week ago) as music director of the Seattle Symphony, becoming the first woman conductor to head a major West Coast orchestra and filling a post that had been vacant since Thomas Dausgaard quit abruptly in January 2022."
She's clearly "world class" - and I'm so proud!
I'm also delighted that she feels she, the orchestra, and the symphony leadership are speaking the same musical language.
However, reading further I learned of conflicts, hopefully now past, apparently contributed to by the difficult personality or approach of a new President and CEO appointed in September 2018, before the former Music Director Dausgaard's precipitous departure in January 2022. Today that President is staunchly in support of Zhang, and says that "she’s been a champion for the causes of women in music over her career."
I dislike hearing about music embroiled in controversy, be that not a personal, or a personal, one.* Music is special; it strikes deeply and happily inside my body, mind, and spirit. Yet with human beings, and for woman in particular, conflict is inevitable in some cases.
Working and living in the current world of ubiquitous "war words," black-and-white thinking, and anger and frustration to which many have grown numb and habituated, I can only wish Zhang well in navigating the music management world as she brings her admirable talents to the Seattle stage.
When will we get to "ho hum" about an appointment of a woman music director? Most likely when there are 51% women already there and happily working.
More to the point, how will we ever get there?
We will -- by working to get appointed more leading musical women like Zhang because she publicly allies with women, is honest about her challenges, does her homework, soldiers on, and yet gives herself some space to make mistakes as she discusses in a May interview with ABC-TV reporter Norah O'Donnell.
After all, true liberation of women in any field will be judged by the time when extraordinary women can make mistakes, and when women of ordinary talent with ordinary homework and ordinary diligence just as required for men to get ahead, can move ahead equally.
In fact, I hope women in music move ahead with more alacrity than men. Let's remember what the respected legal scholar and Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg said about an all-female composition of the US Supreme Court:
"When I'm sometimes asked when will there be enough [women on the Supreme Court]? And I say when there are nine, people are shocked. But there'd been nine men, and nobody's ever raised a question about that."
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On a personal basis, one demanding challenge in improving my pianism with piano lessons has been to not associate negative experiences and feelings at the time I decide to leave a teacher, with the particular piece I am learning. Two years later I still cannot take up again the first-ever Bach Prelude I had just memorized and sorted the notes for, when a disagreement with a teacher resurfaced yet again, and finally triggered me to quit. However, I've recently and successfully navigated a similar event with another teacher regarding my beloved "Widmung," and know that my love affair with this piece will never end or be diminished because of it. I now understand that I require a mutually-respectful partnership with any teacher, and when I don't find it, I move on quickly because I know that's best for me. Besides, today there are many resources for learning, including a few kind musical mentors and friends, as well as piece coaches around the world available for zoom coaching, in person, and via tutorials as well. It's just not a matter of "one size teacher - or symphony - fits all."
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