Equal conduct

A new concert season beckons and with it arrives further evidence of the significantly enhanced profile of women conductors. For example, Tianyi Lu in the 2024-25 season at the Hallé, Anna Rakitina appearing with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Chloe Rooke with the Philharmonia or Elena Schwarz on the Bournemouth Symphony podium.

Artist managers have had their role to play in effecting change, uncovering talent and putting it forward. I talk firstly with Moema Parrott, CEO of the HarrisonParrott Group (HP) and two of the various HP managers who represent female conductors, Katie Cardell-Oliver and Ed Milner. ‘Things have changed so much,’ says Cardell-Oliver, ‘with orchestral musicians and audiences becoming used to seeing women on podiums. But it’s been a huge learning curve for our industry.’

‘As artist managers we’re asked much more now in meetings with orchestra managers, “Who are your female conductors? Who should we be keeping an eye on?”,' notes Milner, 'The other side of things is that we’re now constantly approached about representation by women who’ve studied conducting at music college, have done high-profile masterclasses, have entered competitions, and so on. There are so many more aspirational female conductors around.’

Parrott nonetheless observes that while ‘things have definitely improved, the proportion of female-to-male conductors remains very small. This is an evolutionary process. For HarrisonParrott’s part, EDI [equality, diversity and inclusion] is a major focus in our outlook – and it’s particularly encouraging to see how strongly younger members of staff feel about the issues.’

HP has an open-door policy of offering advice to young female conducting talents in the very early stages of their development. In recent years, the Intermusica office has found its mentoring programme to be particularly beneficial for young female conductors. ‘We guide them through the early stages of their career path,’ explains Bridget Emmerson, the company’s head of artist management. ‘We help them make decisions on what roles to adopt as conductors, which opportunities to pursue, and we introduce them to orchestras. All this doesn’t guarantee the offer of full representation, but so far we’ve taken on those we’ve mentored.’ These include conductors Anna Sulkowska-Migoń, Emilia Hoving and Chloe van Soeterstède (pictured).

In contrast to the range of female conductors on the HP and Intermusica lists, artist manager Jonathan Groves represents one only, the legendary Sian Edwards, who has been represented by Groves for around four decades. The conductor landscape was populated by few women back then, so what aided Groves as a manager in helping project Edwards into the limelight? ‘The fact that Sian emerged as a female conductor of clearly exceptional talent was what you might call “noteworthy”…it stirred curiosity, which was an advantage to me as a manager. She was in demand around the world.’

So why – with not just Edwards making conducting waves but also the likes of Jane Glover, JoAnn Falletta and Simone Young – did wider change not happen sooner? Could artist managers have done more? ‘These conductors were role models,’ Groves reflects, ‘but it took time for their influence to translate into numbers of young female musicians training to be conductors, creating a much broader base to the pyramid. However, it’s inescapable that what’s really changed things for women has been the widespread acknowledgment among promoting bodies of the need to act in the area of diversity and equality.’

Emmerson detected a major post-Covid shift towards orchestras engaging more women as part of that drive towards equality. ‘It was as if the pandemic cleared people’s minds and re-focused them. As artist managers we’ve responded to that.’

The shift in attitudes has nonetheless not been uniform across the global marketplace, observes Parrott. ‘In some parts of the world there have been major advances. That’s especially true in the USA, the UK and in Scandinavian countries, where quotas benefit the engagement of female conductors. Quotas are not necessarily the best option but at least they ensure some degree of standardisation and increased representation in respect of diversity and equality. Elsewhere there are varying degrees of resistance to bringing about real change.’

‘As managers working in a supply-and-demand context,’ adds Milner, ‘we have to work with the attitudes that drive the market in each territory. It may be the players in an orchestra who are resistant to female conductors. It may be audiences. We have to accept the fact that attitudes change more slowly in some places.’

What then is the strategy for persuasion in such instances? ‘You just continue to do the job as you would for any of your other artists,’ says Emmerson.‘You present their strengths, you keep such orchestras informed of the successes these female conductors are enjoying elsewhere. Change is coming! And nothing will help more than people seeing outstanding female talent coming through at the very highest level.’

You hear tales that occasionally orchestra players have expressed concern that certain female conductors have been granted opportunities before they’re ready, on account of an orchestra management rush to pursue an equality agenda. All the artist managers featured here are adamant that their work is focused on representing genuine quality and on ensuring the conductor in question is ready to take on any one challenge. ‘The bottom line,’ says Cardell-Oliver, ‘is that you talk about female talents to orchestras as just “conductors”.'

As for the question of male-female equality in the area of money, Emmerson reports no problems at Intermusica in insisting on parity during fee negotiations. ‘When you think about it, if you’re an orchestra manager who feels strongly that you should book a female conductor, it doesn’t makes sense to discriminate against them in what they’re paid.’

‘If you look at the US, ' says Parrott, 'The widespread emphasis on quotas and equality is paying off in terms of an audience reaction which then fully justifies the paying of appropriate fees.’

Parrott’s one area of concern going forward relates to the paucity of women conductors and composers involved in the area of commercial music – pops orchestras, film, gaming music and so on – but overall she remains optimistic. Milner takes the view that ‘most people in the music industry are now pulling in the same direction. There’s enough momentum to keep things developing. What we need currently are more women in music director positions. I think we’ll see that increasing over the next five years.’

‘There’s a way to go,’ says Cardell-Oliver, ‘But I’m positive about the future.’