Since the time of Claudio Monteverdi, the Italian composer who lived from 1567 to 1643, classical music has been a man’s world. With some exceptions–such as 19th Century pianist-composer Clara Schumann–women achieved lim-ited prominence in the centuries-old art form.
That is changing, and although they are still in the minority, women are appearing more frequently at the highest levels of classical music.
“Ours is a business that’s hundreds of years old,” says Deborah R. Card, president of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra Association. “There are lots of old traditions. But I’ve noticed that things are changing, perception-wise, especially among younger men.”
Card began studying piano and violin at a young age but knew early on that she “wasn’t good enough to be a professional musician,” she says, laughing. “So my decision to go into administration was really easy.”
The CSO is one of seven major U.S. orchestras run by women, and Card’s senior management team is 80 percent women.
Romanian soprano Doina Dimitriu, appearing in the title role of “Tosca” at Lyric Opera of Chicago through March 1, notes that modern-day demands on opera stars are strenuous.
“There are so many things you have to worry about, like your voice and your health, jetlag, climate changes and being away from your loved ones,” says Dimitriu, who is divorced and has no children.
She was inspired by her parents, a tenor and a soprano. “I began studying music at the age of 7, and I wanted to sing immediately,” she says.
British conductor Jane Glover sees more women joining the conducting ranks. “We’re still in a huge minority but growing evenly on both sides of the Atlantic,” says Glover, who is music director of Chicago-based Music of the Baroque.
Glover couldn’t imagine doing anything else. “I’ve always been drawn to music,” she says. “I’m in the company of Mozart, Haydn and Handel. It’s a fantastic way to make a living.”
Glover is optimistic about women’s growing presence at the top levels of orchestras and opera companies. “It’s the same with a woman becoming president” of the United States, she said. “People say there won’t be one, but it will happen.”
WomanNews spoke with these women and three others–Toni-Marie Montgomery, dean of Northwestern University’s School of Music; Shulamit Ran, composer and composition professor at the University of Chicago; and pianist Mitsuko Uchida–about their lives and careers in classical music.
Modern classics
Here are six women who have scaled new heights in various areas of the classical music world.
THE MUSIC DIRECTOR
Jane Glover, Conductor
An acclaimed expert in early music, Glover has conducted all the major symphonies and orchestras in her native England. She also has worked with many orchestras in Europe, the U.S., Asia and Australia, and has conducted choral works across the globe. She is music director of Music of the Baroque and a frequent guest conductor for Chicago Opera Theater, where she will lead the orchestra in Handel’s “La Resurrezione” in March at the Harris Theater for Music and Dance.
The personal and professional: “I’m not married, and I don’t have children. I think it would be extremely difficult if I did. Yet there are other women [in classical music] who do and are quite successful. … One observation I’ve made, in terms of women in this profession, is that the husbands are becoming much more sympathetic and supportive. Magnanimous things like that give me hope.”
THE OPERA SINGER
Doina Dimitriu, Soprano
Romanian-born Dimitriu, 34, attracted attention in 1997 as the winner of her country’s Hariclea Darclee vocal competition. That was followed by her La Scala debut as Mimi in “La Boheme.” A resident of Milan, Italy, she first performed in the U.S. last year at The Santa Fe Opera. She is singing the title lead in “Tosca” at the Lyric Opera of Chicago through March 1.
A telling anecdote: The director of a production of Verdi’s “Un Giorno di Regno” (“King for a Day”) had cast a slim singer as a character who does a striptease, but it turned out that her voice wasn’t right for the part. Enter Dimitriu, who had the voice and spirit for the role but was told by some members of the production staff that she might be too curvaceous for the role. She countered with, “I’m an opera singer, not a stripper!” The soprano went on to do the part, winning acclaim for looking like “a real woman.”
–L.M.
THE INSTRUMENTALIST
Mitsuko Uchida, Pianist
Japanese pianist Uchida trained extensively in Vienna and lives in London. She performs around the world as a solo recitalist, concert soloist and chamber musician, and has had a long recording career on the Philips label. Associated with the music of Mozart, Beethoven and Schubert, Uchida, 56, also is devoted to the works of Berg, Schoenberg and Debussy. Committed to the development of young artists, she is co-director of the Marlboro Music Festival. Uchida recently performed Bartok’s Piano Concerto No. 3 at Symphony Center.
On artistry: “I really don’t think of myself as a `woman’ artist. And I’ve never been a man; so I don’t know what the alternatives are.” Uchida, who is single and has no children, collects period instruments and concert grands. When she returns home after long engagements, “my three concert grands are waiting for me. I think, if I haven’t played them for a while, they get cross.” Music brings her such fulfillment that she would “gladly pay to perform.”
–L.M.
THE COMPOSER
Shulamit Ran, Composer and professor of composition at the University of Chicago
Born in Tel Aviv, Ran moved to New York in the early 1960s to study piano and composition at the Mannes College of Music. She enjoyed a busy career as a concert pianist. In 1971 she premiered her Concert Piece for Piano and Orchestra with Zubin Mehta and the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra. Ran, 55, won a Pulitzer Prize in 1991 for her First Symphony. She was a composer-in-residence at the Chicago Symphony Orchestra from 1990 to 1997, and held the same position at Lyric Opera of Chicago from 1994 to 1997. For more than 30 years she has been a professor of composition at the University of Chicago.
On women in composing: Ran has seen the number of women in her classes grow, and as artistic director of the university’s new music ensemble, Contempo, she regularly premieres works by women. “The only way you can learn how to compose music is by listening to it,” she says. “In the past, many women were denied access to having an orchestra bring their compositions to life.”
THE ADMINISTRATOR
Deborah R. Card, President of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra Association
Card joined the CSO as president in 2003 and previously served as executive director of the Seattle Symphony and Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra. She grew up in Los Angeles, where she studied piano and violin. She continued her music studies in Vienna. Card, 48, holds a master’s degree in business administration from the University of Southern California.
On a life in music: “Women have all kinds of demands on their time, no matter what their job is. But I think there is a gender issue [in classical music.] You make more or less of it based on your own personality. I take the attitude that I learned from my father: If I think I can do it, I’ll figure out a way to do it.”
–L.M.
THE MUSIC SCHOLAR
Toni-Marie Montgomery, Dean, Northwestern University School of Music
Montgomery, 48, a Philadelphia native, holds a doctor of musical arts degree in piano chamber music and accompanying from the University of Michigan, where she also received a master’s of music. She has performed around the world. Previously she was professor and dean of the School of Fine Arts at the University of Kansas and director of the School of Music at Arizona State University. At Northwestern, she is responsible for planning the curriculum and overseeing construction of a new School of Music on the Evanston campus.
On setting goals: In 1987 Montgomery participated in the HERS Project, a program at Bryn Mawr College for female administrators. “One of the highlights was doing a career map. We … made a map of our ultimate job before retirement. … my goal was to be dean or president of a major music school. I achieved that in 2003 in being named dean of Northwestern’s School of Music. I update that chart annually.”
–L.M.
