In the lead-up to International Women’s Day and ABC Classic’s Festival Female Composers, this week’s we celebrate women on the podium.
Mornings presenter Martin Buzacott recommends six of the best.
Loading...Simone Young
When it comes to state-of-the-art conducting of the great orchestral repertoire, look no further than our own Simone Young, now embarking upon her first uninterrupted season as Chief Conductor of the Sydney Symphony Orchestra. Think big romantic lushness, with the works of Mahler, Wagner and Richard Strauss just for starters, and there’s no one better in the world than this Australian who took the helm of Mahler’s own orchestra in Hamburg and made it her own.
Marin Alsop
Meanwhile, in North America, well, anywhere on earth really, because from Bournemouth to Brazil to right here in Australia, Marin Alsop is a living conducting legend. Even more so, though, in her native North America, where, aside from her magnificent interpretations of the classics, she’s simply unbeatable as a conductor of the living, breathing music of our time. She’s taken the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra onto the world stage and when it comes to the music of Aaron Copland and John Adams, there’s no conductor who simply ‘gets it’ quite like her.
Alondra de la Parra
And let's not even begin to talk about Latin music. Oh alright then, let’s, because there’s just so much to say about the brilliance of conductors from the Latin American countries, from the ground-breaking Uruguayan-born Gisele Ben-Dor to the incomparable Cuban Odaline de la Martinez. So let’s settle on just one who we in Australia know so well, the Mexican maestro and recent Chief Conductor of the Queensland Symphony Orchestra, Alondra de la Parra. Quite simply, she makes orchestras swing, and anyone who’s heard her conducting the music of her countrymen Arturo Marquez or Silvestre Revueltas in concert will know the thrill of what happens when de la Parra turns around on the podium and asks the audience, ‘Do you want to dance with us?’
Nicolette Fraillon
Ballet conducting is one of the dark arts, baffling, mysterious, and innate in those rare individuals who can do it well. We’re talking people like Andrea Quinn and Alice Farnham with the leading dance companies in Britain, Europe and America. But when it comes to understanding those ineffable subtleties of making a ballet score sway and swagger in time with moving human bodies, our own Nicolette Fraillon is in the top rank. Music Director and Chief Conductor of the Australian Ballet, she’s been wowing Australian audiences and dancers alike for decades, a universally-respected conductor who’s specialised in this hardest of conducting disciplines while leaving the headlines and cult of celebrity to others.
Dame Jane Glover
We also can't forget the baroque and classical eras where Dame Jane Glover has few peers on the world stage. With her conducting style based on deep scholarship mixed with creative inspiration, she’s in demand as an interpreter of the standard repertoire with all the major orchestral and operatic companies. Then, when it comes to specialist ensembles of the baroque and classical periods, she’s truly in her element. Check out her remarkable discography with the London Mozart Players, for instance, or her artistic direction of the Music of the Baroque concert series. Oh, and did anyone mention her books and her teaching career?
Sian Edwards
And last, but not least, opera. Well look at that, here they are again, Simone Young and Dame Jane Glover, both of them not just leaders on the concert platform but also at the top of their game in opera, whether in Vienna or at Covent Garden and everywhere else that matters. Then there’s Sian Edwards, who, as Music Director at the English National Opera not only became famous in the mainstage operatic repertoire, but has built a reputation as the go-to conductor for modern operas like Mark-Anthony Turnage’s Greek and Sir Michael Tippett’s The Knot Garden. The good news is that she’s a teacher too, giving masterclasses, lecturing at the Guildhall and later Royal Academy of Music, and systematically passing on her legacy and her inspiring example to new generations of conductors.