After reflecting back on my first essay that I wrote for this class I realize that there are many changes in what I take from music experiences from before we started Immersion Week compared to now. Before we started this course my idea of what constituted a music experience was straightforward and narrow-minded because I would just concentrate on the musicians and usually only attend concerts that had “professional” musicians and were much more traditional in content. Beyond that, I was ignorant to many of things have been going on inside the musical establishments; in particular, how women have had troubles getting careers within the music industry.
Beginning with the fact I would only take the time to consider what part the musicians had in the musical experience was a lot like getting a muffin and only eating the top of it. The top may be a really great part, but there is still so much left that is still delicious. A couple weeks ago a few friends and I went to see Chicago Symphony Orchestra perform Mahler’s Symphony No. 4 and Berg’s Violin Concerto, but when we got there it turned out that the violin soloist was out -due to illness- and they were going substitute in a Schubert work. The immediate thoughts I would have had before this course would have just been thinking that it was probably be hard on the performers to deal with a last second program change.
What had changed with my insight from taking Discover Chicago was that I now considered how that abrupt change had affected all the different parts within the orchestra as well. The business and music directors had to coordinate to find a piece that would fit in with the theme of the current program, since the audience was coming expecting to enjoy a certain type of music. On the other hand, it would need to be a work that the orchestra could put together in a much shorter amount of time, or even something they’ve already worked on together this year. This all reminds me of Peck’s idea of the gears that work together to make a music venue work. This concept of the gears that coordinate is best described as a “multigeared mechanism, integrating the financial, artistic, and social resources of an institutional system, [that] may be seen as guiding the production of culture in Chicago”. When one of these elements doesn’t work out, then it “gums up” the whole works. Not until the financial, social, and artistic elements are all worked out can a venue successfully present any kind of music experience. After taking all of that work into consideration I had much more respect for the Chicago Symphony as an organization for putting the concert together so well and still having it come out as such a huge hit. Without the background knowledge from Discover I would’ve never stopped to consider all the work was being done behind the scenes to create a great concert for both the audience and orchestra.
Even farther behind the curtain are the issues that are present when building a musical organization. To build a successful group you need musicians, marketing, finical professionals, and a plethora of other behind the scenes workers -depending on the type of group. While these careers are already hard enough to get, another kink in the chain is that women have a much harder time getting these jobs. I started to realize this trend when I went and saw a few of our jazz combos perform at the Recital Hall, and I was curious why there were no women on stage the whole night. I asked around to a few of my jazz friends and they said there were actually no women in the entire jazz program this year. Building on that, one of the trombone players commented how on there were also no women in his studio.
When I was back in high school I remember seeing quite a few women in each section and genre, but I do have to admit that I’ve seen the male ratio getting higher in most cases since I’ve gotten to college. When I go to concerts to watch professional I see even fewer women performing, especially in the brass section. Is it because women aren’t as talented or don’t have the drive to continue on into this professional, competitive music industry? I’m betting not. I’d say it’s a better bet to say that many ideas of sexism were rooted back in the older days and some people are still clinging to those today.
Brass playing has always had a connotation that it’s more of a “man’s instrument”. In a lot of the top orchestras around the world there’s been controversy over sexual discrimination and harassment, in terms of women winning jobs. In the Münich Philharmonic there was a case with a female trombonist, Abbie Conant, that faced many years of unequal treatment because of her gender. When Abbie auditioned for the position she won the solo trombone position, but after her prohibition year she was demoted to 2nd trombone without having complaints from any of the conductors against her. The next year she asked if she could have another prohibition year to reevaluate her as a soloist. After only a month she was put back on 2nd trombone. For the third year in a row she tried to compensate to get time as the soloist, but when she came forward with her idea the conductor said, “You know the problem: we need a man for solo trombone”. To make the rest of a long story short, Abbie went through many legal battles that included medical testing of her capabilities and many harsh audition to get what she deserved, but even after 13 years she wasn’t drastically underpaid and under-appreciated.
Similar stories can be found in American orchestras as well. The Pittsburg Symphony hired Rebecca Bower for their Co-Principal chair, but she was denied tenure by the same conductor that hired her. The following year she was given tenure by Maazel, even though it was for 2nd trombone. In this situation, it’s the same as Abbie where she never received any complaints about her playing from the conductors. In Berliner Philharmoniker the stories aren’t as harsh, but only a few years ago Sarah Willis was the first women to be a member of the horn section. On a positive note- Sarah is one of the better paid and promoted members of the horn section and is given opportunities to tour as a soloist even though she play 2nd/4th for the orchestra.
Stepping away from the orchestral scene, we can take a look at pop music and we see quite a few of the artists topping the charts are women. Look at how successful Lady Gaga, Katie Perry, and many others are doing -but what if we look behind the scenes at the all people that make it happen? These professions -such as stage hands, marketing, & PR- are also male dominated careers. In the entire music industry 66% of the people are males, which may not seem too bad, but when you break it down to just the promotion and marketing work the percentage changes to 77% males. It’s scary to think that this second statistic shows that under ¼ of the people signing and promoting artists are women. How do you think we start to make changes if you have those kinds of numbers behind the scenes?
In conclusion, why is it important to understand all the interconnected elements of the music industry and also be capable to acknowledge the biases that cause discrimination and harassment that are responsible for a huge disadvantage within the entirety of the music industry? Being able to understand all this means that we might have a chance to get rid of this bias from all the different parts of the music scene. Personally, I didn’t know the extent of how much women discriminated against because I wasn’t familiar with all the facets of the music industry and I didn’t pay enough attention to the minority groups. If we could get more people on board with learning about what all is really involved a music scene, then we’ll have a chance at creating a scene based on equal opportunities that can produce the highest possible quality of music.
Beginning with the fact I would only take the time to consider what part the musicians had in the musical experience was a lot like getting a muffin and only eating the top of it. The top may be a really great part, but there is still so much left that is still delicious. A couple weeks ago a few friends and I went to see Chicago Symphony Orchestra perform Mahler’s Symphony No. 4 and Berg’s Violin Concerto, but when we got there it turned out that the violin soloist was out -due to illness- and they were going substitute in a Schubert work. The immediate thoughts I would have had before this course would have just been thinking that it was probably be hard on the performers to deal with a last second program change.
What had changed with my insight from taking Discover Chicago was that I now considered how that abrupt change had affected all the different parts within the orchestra as well. The business and music directors had to coordinate to find a piece that would fit in with the theme of the current program, since the audience was coming expecting to enjoy a certain type of music. On the other hand, it would need to be a work that the orchestra could put together in a much shorter amount of time, or even something they’ve already worked on together this year. This all reminds me of Peck’s idea of the gears that work together to make a music venue work. This concept of the gears that coordinate is best described as a “multigeared mechanism, integrating the financial, artistic, and social resources of an institutional system, [that] may be seen as guiding the production of culture in Chicago”. When one of these elements doesn’t work out, then it “gums up” the whole works. Not until the financial, social, and artistic elements are all worked out can a venue successfully present any kind of music experience. After taking all of that work into consideration I had much more respect for the Chicago Symphony as an organization for putting the concert together so well and still having it come out as such a huge hit. Without the background knowledge from Discover I would’ve never stopped to consider all the work was being done behind the scenes to create a great concert for both the audience and orchestra.
Even farther behind the curtain are the issues that are present when building a musical organization. To build a successful group you need musicians, marketing, finical professionals, and a plethora of other behind the scenes workers -depending on the type of group. While these careers are already hard enough to get, another kink in the chain is that women have a much harder time getting these jobs. I started to realize this trend when I went and saw a few of our jazz combos perform at the Recital Hall, and I was curious why there were no women on stage the whole night. I asked around to a few of my jazz friends and they said there were actually no women in the entire jazz program this year. Building on that, one of the trombone players commented how on there were also no women in his studio.
When I was back in high school I remember seeing quite a few women in each section and genre, but I do have to admit that I’ve seen the male ratio getting higher in most cases since I’ve gotten to college. When I go to concerts to watch professional I see even fewer women performing, especially in the brass section. Is it because women aren’t as talented or don’t have the drive to continue on into this professional, competitive music industry? I’m betting not. I’d say it’s a better bet to say that many ideas of sexism were rooted back in the older days and some people are still clinging to those today.
Brass playing has always had a connotation that it’s more of a “man’s instrument”. In a lot of the top orchestras around the world there’s been controversy over sexual discrimination and harassment, in terms of women winning jobs. In the Münich Philharmonic there was a case with a female trombonist, Abbie Conant, that faced many years of unequal treatment because of her gender. When Abbie auditioned for the position she won the solo trombone position, but after her prohibition year she was demoted to 2nd trombone without having complaints from any of the conductors against her. The next year she asked if she could have another prohibition year to reevaluate her as a soloist. After only a month she was put back on 2nd trombone. For the third year in a row she tried to compensate to get time as the soloist, but when she came forward with her idea the conductor said, “You know the problem: we need a man for solo trombone”. To make the rest of a long story short, Abbie went through many legal battles that included medical testing of her capabilities and many harsh audition to get what she deserved, but even after 13 years she wasn’t drastically underpaid and under-appreciated.
Similar stories can be found in American orchestras as well. The Pittsburg Symphony hired Rebecca Bower for their Co-Principal chair, but she was denied tenure by the same conductor that hired her. The following year she was given tenure by Maazel, even though it was for 2nd trombone. In this situation, it’s the same as Abbie where she never received any complaints about her playing from the conductors. In Berliner Philharmoniker the stories aren’t as harsh, but only a few years ago Sarah Willis was the first women to be a member of the horn section. On a positive note- Sarah is one of the better paid and promoted members of the horn section and is given opportunities to tour as a soloist even though she play 2nd/4th for the orchestra.
Stepping away from the orchestral scene, we can take a look at pop music and we see quite a few of the artists topping the charts are women. Look at how successful Lady Gaga, Katie Perry, and many others are doing -but what if we look behind the scenes at the all people that make it happen? These professions -such as stage hands, marketing, & PR- are also male dominated careers. In the entire music industry 66% of the people are males, which may not seem too bad, but when you break it down to just the promotion and marketing work the percentage changes to 77% males. It’s scary to think that this second statistic shows that under ¼ of the people signing and promoting artists are women. How do you think we start to make changes if you have those kinds of numbers behind the scenes?
In conclusion, why is it important to understand all the interconnected elements of the music industry and also be capable to acknowledge the biases that cause discrimination and harassment that are responsible for a huge disadvantage within the entirety of the music industry? Being able to understand all this means that we might have a chance to get rid of this bias from all the different parts of the music scene. Personally, I didn’t know the extent of how much women discriminated against because I wasn’t familiar with all the facets of the music industry and I didn’t pay enough attention to the minority groups. If we could get more people on board with learning about what all is really involved a music scene, then we’ll have a chance at creating a scene based on equal opportunities that can produce the highest possible quality of music.
Sources:
Mark Clague's "The Industrial Evolution of the Arts: Chicago's Auditorium Building (1889-) as a Cultural Machine"
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