In the February 2018 issue of this newsletter I mentioned how far we'd come in the lever harp world in the 40 years since I wrote Teach Yourself to Play the Folk Harp. This is the 2nd installment in the "We've Come a Long Way . . ." series. 

 

A few weeks ago I watched two episodes of "Leonard Bernstein's Young People's Concerts" on the Turner Classic Movies channel.  This classical music series with the New York Philharmonic was broadcast on CBS from 1958 to 1972.  I remember watching it as a kid. 

 

The first episode I recently watched was called "Humor in Music."  It was filmed in black and white from Carnegie Hall on February 28, 1959.  It was fun to see the shots of the audience because everyone looked so "1950s." As I expected, all the women and girls were in dresses, but I was surprised that so many of them were wearing hats! And, of course, ALL of the musicians were men.   

 

The next episode I watched, "What Is a Mode," was from Nov 23, 1966.  It was in color from the brand-new Lincoln Center.  Once again, all of the musicians I saw were men . . . including the two harpists.  

This got me thinking . . . when were women first hired in major orchestras? 

 

Doing a Google search, I found an April 11, 1971 article by Judy Klemesrud in the New York Times archives (don't you just LOVE the internet!) entitled Is Women's Lib Coming to the Philharmonic?  Here's the first paragraph:

 

A few months ago, Zubin Mehta made some remarks in these pages that might qualify him, in the eyes of Women Libbers, as the Male Chauvinist Musician Pig of the Year. "I just don't think women should be in an orchestra," said the handsome Mehta, whose Los Angeles Philharmonic has 16 women members. "They become men. Men treat them as equals; they even change their pants in front of them. I think it's terrible!"

   

Later in the article, one of the four female musicians in the New York Philharmonic in 1971 responded this way:

 

"It doesn't bother me," said Michele (Shelly) Saxon, 23, a Brooklyn-born bassist. "I've seen men zillions of times in their underwear. You see it all the time in the fashion ads. And some of our Philharmonic men look better than those male models." 

 

Here's how Ms. Klemesrud describes the other three women in the NY Philharmonic at the time, who were all string players.   

 

Orin O'Brien, 35, a tall and slender bassist, who in 1966 became the first woman to be named a permanent member of the Philharmonic. A native of Los Angeles, she is single and considered the orchestra's "glamour girl."

 

Evangeline Benedetti, a 30-year-old Texas-born cellist. Her husband, Donald, is a free-lance trumpet player.

 

Toby Saks, 29, a cellist who is the only mother in the orchestra. A native New Yorker, she and her husband, David Berldnski, a philosophy professor, have a 3-year-old daughter.

 

As I said . . . we've come a long way in so many ways!  

 

After reading that article, I fast-forwarded through the 1966 Young People's Concerts episode that I had recorded on my DVR and was able to locate a short section where I found the woman in the bass section! (It kind of felt like playing Where's Waldo!)  

 

By the way, I just found out that August 25th is Leonard Bernstein's 100th birthday!   

 

MORE HISTORY

 

Another Google search led me to www.classicfm.com: "Classic FM is the UK's only 100 per cent classical music radio station. Since we began broadcasting in September 1992, the station has brought classical music to millions of people across the UK."   

 

A May 11, 2018 article on this site is entitled When were women first allowed to join the orchestra? Here are some excerpts from this informative article.

 

   In 1913, the first women were hired by a major orchestra. The Queen's Hall Orchestra in London, led by Sir Henry Wood, took on six female violinists in 1913. By 1918, the orchestra had 14 female musicians. However, there was still a stigma around women musicians - particularly around the instruments they played.

   Sir Henry Wood, after taking on a number of women violinists, said: "I do not like ladies playing the trombone or double bass, but they can play the violin, and they do."

 

17 years later, the first woman joined an American orchestra

   In 1930, harpist Edna Phillips was accepted into the Philadelphia Orchestra by conductor Leopold Stokowski. This was a bit of a breakthrough - this orchestra was one of the very best in the US, ranking alongside the New York Philharmonic and Boston Symphony.
   But some of the male musicians felt Edna was an unwelcome presence in the orchestra, particularly as she had replaced a male musician, who'd been with them for 17 years and was popular among the orchestra.

 

The Vienna Philharmonic didn't accept women until 1997 

   It was founded in 1842, but the notoriously traditional Vienna Philharmonic didn't allow women to be 'full' members until 1997, after years of male members of the orchestra insisting that accepting women would lower their musical standards.
   That year, harpist Anna Lelkes became the first official female member of the orchestra.
Previously, she had played for them regularly but her name had never been listed in the programme. Lelkes was paid for her work, but never publicly acknowledged.

What does the gender balance look like today?

   In 2014, American orchestras were, on average, made up of 63 per cent men and 37 per cent women.
   Instrument sections tell a slightly more concerning story. In 2014, 59 per cent of violinists and 95 per cent of harpists were female, while 97 per cent of trumpet and trombone players were male.

 

And so, although women have made many in-roads into orchestras in the past century, it appears that there is still more work to be done.

Nene photo at Kilauea Point, Kauai  Jörg Hempel on Wikipedia  

Kilauea point and lighthouse, G. Pederson, public domain on Wikipedia

Hanalei valley, Photographer Gh5046, public domain on Wikipedia 

Nene crossing sign in Hanalei valley, Sylvia Woods 

Feral chickens at Lydgate Beach Park by Jeya Pillai - Sharanya Sathiabalan