Looking at the history of the Mahler Competition and its laureates, there are a lot of winners who have made it to the top ranks, including Gustavo Dudamel. Actually I wasn´t on the jury in 2004. Esa- Pekka (Salonen) was keeping me in touch. I was in Los Angeles, producing a Hollywood Bowl Extravaganza, when he first told me about this remarkable young guy. At the end, Dudamel almost didn´t win. There were certain people on the jury- I won´t say who they are- who were just opposed. It was ridiculous. At any rate, the minute he won, Esa-Pekka called me up and said, “hey, are you willing to take a risk? I think we should have this young guy. He barely speaks English, he doesn’t speak a word of German, but it was the best damn Mahler Five I´ve ever heard”. I booked him the next day. He came, we had two dates at the Hollywood Bowl, and it was love at first sight….
What do you think is the reason for this outcome? It´s hard to give you a reason aside from obvious sexism, but you should remember that one of the difficulties for young conductors are that unlike a pianist, who can always get a piano, and unlike a violinist, who always carries his instrument along, a conductor always needs an orchestra to practice on. I was the first woman to run one of the big five orchestras in the US, and that wasn´t until 1991. We did not set quota at the New York Philharmonic, but we knew that we wanted to have a presence of gender diversity. Did you face discrimination yourself at the time? I had been Deputy Director of the San Francisco Symphony for almost nine years, so I had a lot of experience. From San Francisco, I went to be President and CEO of the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, and from there, President and CEO of the Detroit Symphony. But then, I was offered the Pittsburgh Symphony, which is a wonderful orchestra as well. We had agreed on a contract, the orchestra committee wanted me, the board wanted me, and all I needed was the blessing of the Music Director, Lorin Maazel. I was flown to London and went to meet him for tea at the River Room of the Savoy Hotel. I waited for two hours, but he never showed up. So I called the chairman, and I could tell immediately that something wasn´t right. Still, he told me to see Maazel at an orchestra rehearsal the next day. I went and approached Maazel during a break, but he completely ignored me. Only when I insisted, he offered to see me after the rehearsal. He took me to his dressing room, put his feet on the desk right in front of my face, took out a cigar box and said:
You were also on the jury of La Maestra.
Yes, I also went to La Maestra in Paris, which was an increasingly old-fashioned competition, except that it was all women. By the way, I do not believe in all women competitions. We have to have the best people, period. On the other hand, I´m glad that La Maestra was held, because it brought people´s attention to a problem that really matters. In Rotterdam, there were no women in the finals. Indeed, I could not believe that it was all men. There are so many gifted women, so many young women conductors- I did not understand that. The directors felt badly about it, and somehow it was the way it had worked out, but for the future, I realized that we will need to use our positions to make sure we have more gender balance. This is an ongoing problem, a problem that is changing and evolving. Not only me, but also the men on the jury felt that way. But in any case, I don´t think it will happen again..
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