“Despite a remarkable change in attitudes, the place of women at the head of permanent orchestras still remains very low”, wrote, in 2022, the journalist Nathalie Krafft, in a study commissioned from her by the International Conductors Competition La Maestra, co-founded in 2020 by conductor Claire Gibault, director of the Paris Mozart Orchestra, and the Philharmonie de Paris, now directed by Olivier Mantei.
The report, which seems to pass through the prism of the glass half empty, continues its analysis: “While only 4.3% of orchestras in the world were conducted by women in 2018, today we are only at 8 %. In France, the number of women at the head of permanent orchestras increased from 2.7% in 2019 to 10.8% in 2022: a spectacular jump, certainly, but we are still far from parity. »
Is parity a goal? The French conductor Nathalie Stutzmann, whose international career is following an unprecedented meteoric trajectory on the women’s side and who chairs the third edition of the biannual competition, has doubts. “I was initially perplexed about the need for such a competition: doesn’t this contribute to creating a “ghetto” of female conductors? », she declared on the microphone of Léa Salamé, on France Inter, Wednesday March 13.
“But,” continues the patron of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, in the United States, “I allowed myself to be convinced by the organizers of the competition and their desire to correct what has unfortunately been done in history. In any case, this competition broadcast by Arte.tv allows for increased visibility. » For her, “the most important thing is not strict parity, because there are some very bad women conductors, but that everyone has a chance.”
Candidates from forty-seven countries
Nathalie Stutzmann is at the head of a jury (three men and three women) which judges the tests of the third edition of the competition, broadcast live on Arte.tv, until Sunday March 17. At the end of the final, Sunday at 7:30 p.m., he will crown the recipients of the first, second and third prizes, from a selection of 14 among 197 candidates from 47 countries.
Times are changing, as evidenced by certain bastions, such as the Bayreuth Festival, inaugurated in 1876. The places, designed by Richard Wagner and financed by his admirer and patron, Ludwig II of Bavaria, will have waited until 2021 for a woman to appear. produce there: it was the Ukrainian Oksana Lyniv (43 years old at the time), followed, in 2023, by Nathalie Stutzmann (58 years old, who returns there this summer) and by the Australian Simone Young (63 years old), called to direct the Tetralogy this summer – replacing Philippe Jordan.
Things will be “normalized” when orchestras of the very first category appoint a musical director at their head and when the Vienna Philharmonic, where women were prevented from playing until… 1997, invites a maestra for the sacrosanct New Year’s concert. And, finally, “when there will no longer be a need for a conducting competition reserved for women”, as Nathalie Stutzmann rightly says.
