Todd Rosenberg
Cynthia Yeh, principal percussion of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, performs James McMillan’s percussion concerto, Veni Veni Emmanuel, December 2014.
by Heidi Waleson
INSTRUMENTAL
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s Karin Bliznik, 31, remembers it, all the flute players in her high school band in Brockton, Mass. were girls. Bliznik, however, anchored the mostly male trumpet section. She began playing that instrument in elementary school (it was her second choice, after percussion); today, she is principal trumpet of the St. Louis Symphony. And while female principal trumpet players are rare in major American orchestras, Bliznik’s appointment in 2013 was no novelty to St. Louis. Her predecessor in the chair, Susan Slaughter, held the post for nearly 40 years. That juxtaposition—the rows of female flutists and the occasional principal female trumpet player—illustrates a paradox in contemporary musical life. According to recent scholarly studies, old gender stereotypes still persist when elementary and middle-school children select instruments: girls choose flutes and harps and violins; boys pick trumpets and drums. The tradition of the occasional woman in a sea of brass players or bassists in the orchestra goes way back. In 1941, Helen Kotas was hired as the Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s principal French horn, making her the first woman hired as the principal of any section other than harp in a major American symphony orchestra. Atlanta Symphony Orchestra bassist Jane Little,
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The male-tofemale ratio of musicians at U.S. orchestras is close to 50/50, but women are much more likely to be found playing violin or flute than trumpet or double bass. Why?
symphony
SPRING 2016