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Opinion

What city is leading the world for women conductors? It ain’t Paris or Vienna

Dallas is making a name for itself by advocating for women in classical music

Dallas has made a name for itself in football, barbecue, oil production, country music and dozens of other stereotypically Texan arenas. We’re proud of that heritage. But we’re also proud of our city’s growing reputation in another arena, one not widely associated with Texas: gender equality in classical music.

According to industry website Bachtrack, only five of the 100 busiest conductors in the world are women. Dallas Symphony Orchestra CEO Kim Noltemy told our reporter that women haven’t enjoyed the same opportunities as men in the world of classical music. But, happily, Dallas is helping to change that. This month, the Dallas Opera hosted its fifth annual Linda and Mitch Hart Institute for Women Conductors, a two-week residency that includes master classes, hands-on conducting opportunities, seminars, networking opportunities, and coaching on business-related issues like leading staff, cultivating patrons, dealing with agents and handling media interviews. Kickstarted by a grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation in 2015, the Hart Institute is the first program of its kind in the world.

This year, the DSO joined the cause with its first Women in Classical Music Symposium, a four-day conference attended by 250 people and highlighted by a DSO performance conducted by its first female principal guest conductor, Gemma New.

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Elizabeth Askren, a graduate from the Hart Institute who directs opera in Romania and teaches in France, told KERA, “This really is the program of reference. It is the one to watch. Everybody has heard of it now. In Europe, in Asia, in the Americas. Dallas Opera and the Hart Institute. I mean that’s the place where young talented and motivated female conductors are looking.”

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That’s high praise. After all, it’s not New York or Paris or Vienna generating this buzz; it’s Dallas. And it’s happening because of good old-fashioned Texas initiative. When we asked Dallas Opera CEO Ian Derrer about the Hart Institute’s beginnings, he pointed to our city’s personality.

“There’s a great legacy already established in the city here of women leaders,” Derrer said. “I mean when you start thinking about Caroline Rose Hunt and Mary Kay Ash and Elsa Von Seggern. These women were great great business minds and leaders. So to be able to have Dallas as a real focal point for what’s going on the arts industry for equity for women, it seems very natural.”

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We agree. Dallas is a great place to be a cowboy, an oil baron and a football coach. It’s also a great place to be a female leader.

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