50-50 Is a Good Number

Pat Dunlap Evans
23 hours ago
3 min read

On Valentine's Day, the Las Vegas Philharmonic hosted an amazing female classical guitarist, Sharon Isbin, and an exhilarating female guest conductor, Tamara Dworetz. Both had full command of their roles, as well as the audience. It was delightful to see women in key positions.

This is not an anti-male post. I greatly admire many male musicians and conductors. Pianist Andre Watts's version of Rachmanioff's Piano Concerto No. 2 made me, my son, and an entire Meyerson Symphony Center audience rise in unison to cheer. Cellist Yo-Yo Ma's take on "The Swan" makes me weep, and conductor Jaap van Zweden created a world-class orchestra out of the Dallas Symphony when he (and I) were there.

But 50-50 is a good number.

For centuries, women were traditionally unable to break the glass ceiling in symphony orchestras. After all, men needed to support their families, and every orchestra wanted to hire the best and most experienced. But career players rarely left their posts. And, with what were called "handshake auditions," male friends helped male friends gain better positions when an opening occurred.

Slowly, times have changed.

During the 1970s and 1980s, most major American symphony orchestras adopted "blind" auditions, by using a screen and carpeted walkways to conceal a candidate's identity. This was designed to reduce bias in hiring, especially related to gender and race. Since that time, studies show that blind auditions are responsible for 30% to 55% of the increase in the proportion of women hired, as reported by Princeton University and the National Bureau of Economic Research.

Breaking the Glass Podium

However, in the role of music director, i.e., conductor, it's taken until the last decade for women to break the "brass podium." Not because they didn't have the talent, but because those roles were few, very male, and occupied. And, no doubt there was resistance to hiring a female conductor.

If someone asked you to visualize a symphony orchestra conductor, it's likely you'd envision a dramatic Leonard Bernstein or Arturo Toscanini, not a smallish woman like Tamara Dworetz, who sported a short, fluffy hairdo and a somewhat baggy-panted charcoal suit when she took the podium in Las Vegas.

As my mind adjusted to the visual surprise, I realized that clothes and hair don't make the conductor. This young woman quickly took full command of the orchestra, even finishing the evening's varied concert with Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture, complete with bells, booms, and all the noise of celebrating Russia's victory over Napoleon's invasion.

Maestro Dworetz not only kept the cacophony together, but dominated it, and I expect to see her in a key musical director role someday.

Welcome Rei Hotada

After the tenure of the LV Phil's artistic consultant, Leonard Slatkin, who led the Detroit Symphony Orchestra for years, LV Phil's new music director will be Rei Hotada. She was born in Tokyo, Japan, but grew up in Chicago, and currently is music director for the Fresno, California, Philharmonic.

We're going to have to share her.

Bill and I saw her conduct the LV Phil during her audition here, and she certainly had the spark, energy, and precision of a fine orchestra leader. We look forward to her first concert in May 2026.