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scribed in this world: Conductors conduct; wives clean, cook
and change diapers.
How then, to explain the others — women like Baltimore
Symphony Orchestra conductor
Marin Alsop, or Cheng, or, indeed, Tokay? As she brandished
her wand against “affected neutrality and coldness,” a phrase
came to mind in opposition,
made infamous last year by conductor Vasily Petrenko: “cute girl
at the podium.” (His point: con-
CULTURE
ductresses are too physically distracting to be effective.)
Petrenko may be interested to
know that none of Tokay’s male
strings players dropped their
bows. Such is the “present day
misery” of the musical profession, Tokay later wrote to HuffPost. “A systematically dissuasive
policy against women,” concocted
by the men in charge, she asserted, is used “as a proof of their
natural disability.”
Last year proved a rich season
for dissuasion. Not long after
Petrenko’s comments surfaced,
composer Bruno Montavani,
HUFFINGTON
02.16.14
Carnegie Hall
in New York
City, where
Sera Tokay
conducted
last month.