In this post I provide updated information about the status of women in the
Vienna Philharmonic. I include evidence that the orchestra does not intend
to end its policies of gender bias, the dates for the orchestra's spring
visit to the USA, and a specific suggestion for how the protest against the
orchestra might be effectively continued.
For those unfamiliar with the situation, the Vienna Philharmonic believes
that gender and ethnic uniformity give it aesthetic superiority. Women and
ethnic minorities are excluded from the orchestra. Last February, this
policy was -nominally- changed under immense international pressure. One
day before the Vienna Philharmonic left for its 1997 tour of the USA, it
voted to make its second harpist, Anna Lelkes, a member of the orchestra.
She had performed with them unofficially for the last 26 years. Since then,
no other women have been employed by the orchestra. For complete
documentation of the orchestra's ideologies and the protest against them,
see the ZAPVPO web page at:
http://www.dorsai.org/~buzzarte/zapvpo.htm
Anna Lelkes membership does not reflect a genuine change in the Vienna
Philharmonic's ideologies. The new Chairman of the Philharmonic, Clemens
Hellsberg, has confirmed that she was admitted -only- because the orchestra
had no other choice, "Due to the way we reacted all year, and to the way
this whole thing played itself out, it is my opinion that we had no other
choice in the situation, than to vote yes."(1) Lelkes confirms this, "Of
course, they had a maddening fear of the protests organized by American
women's rights groups, and I believe, this pressure was decisive. So they
said, 'Oh well, it has to be someone. We have to give a sign that we are
not so evil, and we have to represent equal opportunity without gender
discrimination.', as it was then officially formulated for the press."(2)
The decision to admit Lelkes represented a temporary political necessity.
Since the Vienna Philharmonic views the harp as a special case, it is
unlikely that women who play other instruments will follow her into the
orchestra. This was confirmed by second violinist, Wolfgang Zahetner:
"We have a male harpist, and two ladies. If you ask how noticeable the
gender is with these colleagues, my personal experience is that this
instrument is so far at the edge of the orchestra that it doesn't disturb
our emotional unity, the unity I would strongly feel, for example, when the
orchestra starts really cooking with a Mahler Symphony. There I sense very
strongly and simply that only men sit around me. And as I said, I would
not want to gamble with this unity."(3)
The harpist sits at the edge of the orchestra where she won't disturb male
unity, but where she can serve as a much needed alibi.
The lack of change in the orchestra's ideologies is also seen in its
continuing misogynist behavior. It published a personal attack on Regina
Himmelbauer, the European representative of the International Alliance for
Women in Music, in a leading Vienese daily. They suggested that through her
advocacy she betrayed her country to foreigners. And they circulated
letters demanding the dismissal of Professor Dr. Elena Ostleitner from her
position at the Wiener Musikhochschule. She is the school's official
representative for women, and has worked on cases of discrimination and
sexual harassment by Philharmonic members who are professors. (These two
heroic women are still under attack and deserve the strong and continuing
moral support of the IAWM.)
Astoundingly, even Iaon Holender, the Executive Director of the Vienna
State Opera, who last year forced its orchestra to admit women, defends the
Philharmonic with patently sexist views. He was asked if a woman might win
the Philharmonic's tuba position. He responded:
"I cannot imagine that a woman could do that. There are, indeed,
differences that nature has made between man and woman. Naturally, these
differences have an effect on instrumental performance. Naturally, there
are different lung constellations between men and women, and naturally
there are different mouth constructions, and naturally there are different
lips between men and women. And for certain instruments, women are less
appropriate than men. That is a fact."(4)
He is presumably unaware that numerous world-class tuba players are
women.(5)
The Vienna Philharmonic believes that if women or racial minorities were
allowed into the orchestra, it would somehow damage its image of
authenticity before its world-wide public. Due to this ideology, the
Philharmonic requires special conditions for its auditions. In his memoirs,
Otto Strasser, a former Chairman of the Philharmonic, discusses how blind
auditions were used during his tenure, and complains about the threat of
racial contamination they caused:
"I hold it for incorrect that today the applicants play behind a screen; an
arrangement that was brought in after the Second World War in order to
assure objective judgments. I continuously fought against it, especially
after I became Chairman of the Philharmonic, because I am convinced that to
the artist also belongs the person, that one must not only hear, but also
see, in order to judge him in his entire personality. [...] Even a
grotesque situation that played itself out after my retirement, was not
able to change the situation. An applicant qualified himself as the best,
and as the screen was raised, there stood a Japanese before the stunned
jury. He was, however, not engaged, because his face did not fit with the
"Pizzicato-Polka" of the New Year's Concert."(6)
The orchestra feels "that to the artist also belongs the person", and that
the individual's accomplishment, -and marketability-, are racially
determined. The orchestra's blind audition procedure has since been
revised; the screen is now removed for the final rounds. This allows the
physiognomy of the applicant to be evaluated.
Prof. Claudia Goldin (a Harvard Economist) and Princeton's Cecilia Rouse
recently completed a study of blind auditions in symphony orchestras in the
USA. They found that the use of a screen increased the chances of US women
in the first round of auditions by 50%, and in the final rounds by 300%.
The overall effect of blind auditions has increased the presence of women
in US orchestras over the last 20 years from about a 5% representation to
36%. It is thus notable that the Vienna Philharmonic refuses to
reestablish blind auditions, even though it claims to have changed its
ideologies.
Women's rights groups feel that the Vienna Philharmonic cannot cast aside
the questions of racism and sexism because it made its woman second
harpist a member, while it -refuses- to institute guarantees of fair
audition procedures. The orchestra's clearly documented ideologies of
gender and ethnic superiority, its behavior which shows no change of heart,
and its documented tendency to be less than accurate in its pronouncements,
make it difficult for women to simply trust its word.
This spring the Vienna Philharmonic is returning to New York City. Not all
of the works on the Vienna Philharmonic's program use harp. It is once
again going to be on stage as an all-male, all-white orchestra, whose
members espouse ideologies of gender and racial supremacy.
Carnegie Hall is thus sponsoring public celebrations of sexism and racism
in the United States.
These are the Vienna Philharmonic's dates in Carnegie Hall:
February 27, 28, and 29th, 1998.
The protesters should send a letter to Carnegie Hall, asking it to explain
why it presents the Vienna Philharmonic, inspite of its exclusion of women
and minorites, and its refusal to institute guarantees of fair employment
practices. If Carnegie Hall does not respond with convincing
justifications, then it should become the object of protest. Without
presenters, the Vienna Philharmonic cannot visit the USA. The specific goal
of the continuing protests should be the establishment of auditions
procedures in the Vienna Philharmonic that guarantee equal opportunity for
all.
All of the moral ascendancy that we aspire to through art, is lost when it
is used to create public celebrations of sexism and racism. Western art
music does not need gender and racially cleansed "Pizzicato-Polkas"-- and
especially not in America's most noble concert hall.
ENDNOTES:
(1) "Keine Unterschiede zwischen maennlichen und weiblichen Musikern",
_Musik & Theater_ (May 23, 1997).
(2) "Bis gestern existierte ich officziell nicht", _Salzburger
Nachrichten_ (March 1, 1997).
(3) "Musikalische Misogynie," broadcast by the West German State Radio,
February 13, 1996.
(4) "Achtung Kultur", February 24, 1997, 10:30 pm, Second Austrian State
Television.
(5)These include Jan Duga, Euphonium soloist of the US Air Force Band; Dr.
Mary Ann Craig, Professor of Low Brass at Monclair State University; Angie
Hunter, one of the foremost Euphonium soloists in Germany; Dorthea Krause,
tubist of the Thuringer Staatsorchester; and Laura Lineberger, euphonium
soloist of the US Army Band.
(6) Otto Strasser, _Und dafuer wird man noch bezahlt: Mein Leben mit den
Wiener Phiharmonikern_ (Wien: Paul Neff Verlag, 1974)
William Osborne
100260.243@compuserve.com
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