Women in Classical Music Symposium

THE DALLAS Symphony Orchestra’s fourth annual Women in Classical Music Symposium was held November 6-9, 2022, at the Morton H. Meyerson Symphony Center in Dallas, Texas. Administrators, educators, musicians and conductors from all over the world gathered in conversation, panels and discussions. Support for the symposium is provided by Texas Commission on the Arts, The Kaleta A. Doolin Foundation, the Texas Women’s Foundation, Nancy Bierman, Joanne Bober, Yon Jorden, Betty Regard, Wei Ling Wang and Martha Wells. Details on programming and registration are available at womeninclassicalmusic.com. Central to the event is the Award of Excellence and the choosing of a Career Advancement Award by the honoree. This year, the DSO honored classical singer Julia Bullock with the annual Award of Excellence.

Combining versatile artistry with a probing intellect and commanding stage presence, she has headlined productions and concerts at preeminent arts institutions around the world. An innovative curator in high demand from a diverse group of arts presenters, museums and schools, her notable positions have included collaborative partner of Esa-Pekka Salonen with the San Francisco Symphony, 2020–22 Artist-inResidence of London’s Guildhall School of Music and Drama,

2019-20 Artist-in-Residence of the San Francisco Symphony and 2018-19 Artist-in-Residence at New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art. Bullock is also a prominent voice of social consciousness and activism.

Julia chose vocalist Katherine Goforth to receive this year’s Career Advancement Award. Katherine Goforth is a vocalist known for sharing her “noble, colorful and iridescent vocal sound” (Magazin Klassik) in strong and heartfelt performances. “Goforth... does not hold back,” (The New York Times) offering vivid character portraits sung with the utmost commitment and skill. A transgender woman, Goforth excels in a wide-range of roles across the gender spectrum. She is a proud representative of LGBTQ community and advocates for the inclusion of all voices in the performing arts. Her recent appearances have included Portland Opera, Seattle Opera’s Creation Lab, and Opera Theater Oregon.Katherine is an Instructor of Voice at Clark College in Vancouver, Washington, and teaches at Lydian Music Studios in Portland, Oregon. She has served on the board of Opera Theater Oregon and the Aquilon Music Festival, and consulted for a variety of new operatic projects and arts organizations. Her writing has been published in Opera Canada Magazine and she has been presented as a speaker by Renegade Opera. This year’s panels focused on topics for all phases of careers as well as roles in the industry. Performers, administrators and patrons took key points away from the discussion. In addition, historical and contemporary topics were included.

The State of the Industry Martha Gilmer, CEO, San Diego Symphony; Fabio Luisi, Music Director, Dallas Symphony; Kim Noltemy, Ross Perot President & CEO, Dallas Symphony; and Matias Tarnopolsky, President & CEO, Philadelphia Orchestra & Kimmel Center spoke in a session looking at progress in terms of racial and gender equity, mid-career dropoff and retention, and progress on artistic appointments through the lens of equity and inclusion. History and Leadership of Black Women in U.S. Orchestras Katie McGuinness, Wildenthal Families Vice President of Artistic Operations, Dallas Symphony, moderated a panel with Julia Bullock, Soprano; Nicole Jordan, Principal Librarian, Philadelphia Orchestra and Demarre McGill, Principal Flute, Seattle Symphony discussed the unseen work and deep impact of Black women in U.S. orchestras both on-stage and behind the scenes. Putting it all Together: Work-Life Integration Work and life no longer exist as separate fields of play. Work-life “balance” has been replaced with “integration”, a way to fold activities of both into short days and achieve success in both areas. Camille Delaney-McNeil, Director, Beckmen YOLA Center, Los Angeles Philharmonic; Min Kwon, Professor, Rutgers University and Founder and Director, Center for Musical Excellence; Shana Mathur, Chief Strategy & External Relations Officer, Natural History Museums of Los Angeles County; Kit Sawers, President, Klyde Warren Park and Maia Jasper White, Executive and Co-Artistic Director of Salastina discussed ways to achieve this integration, advances we still need to make and how economics, race and status change the equation. Rescuing Zohra, Afghanistan’s All-Women’s Orchestra, from the Taliban: A Case Study Lesley Rosenthal and Jessica Lustig, founding board members of “Friends of Afghanistan National Institute of Music (ANIM)”, spoke about how the worldwide musical community, including Yo-Yo Ma, Renée Fleming, Marin Alsop, Daniel Barenboim and Spotify, as well as US politicians from both sides of the aisle, came together to evacuate the imperiled Afghanistan National Institute of Music when the Taliban retook power in Afghanistan in August 2021. ANIM faculty and students were in mortal peril when the Haqqani Taliban moved into the ANIM campus and made it a center of operations. ANIM galvanized the support of the world musical

community 273 ANIM community members, eventually securing their safe passage to Portugal, where they were offered group asylum by the government. The symposium also featured four chamber music performances. Goforth presented a recital on Monday, November 7, 2022 at 6:00PM. The program included works by Respighi, Mahler and Schubert along with selections by Margaret Bonds, Florence Price and David Lang. Bullock was included virtually in the recital with prerecorded works for vocals and piano performed with her husband Christian Reif. DSO Principal Second Violin Angela Fuller Heyde (Barbara K. & Seymour R. Thum Chair) and Principal Harp Emily Levin (Elsa von Seggern Chair) performed a recital on Sunday, November 6 at 7:30PM on the Meyerson Stage. The two principals programmed a concert of duets and solos by Amy Beach, Sebastian Currier, Florence Price, Henriette Renié, Camille Saint-Saëns and Nicolai von Wilm. The program was dedicated to Jorja Fleezanis, long-time Minnesota Orchestra concertmaster and a dedicated and devoted teacher. During the lunchtime break on Tuesday, November 8, DSO musicians Giyeon Yoon, violin; Hyorim Han, violin; Matthew Sinno, viola and Minji Kim, cello; performed works for string quartet: Jessie Montgomery’s Break Away and selections from Alexander Borodin’s String Quartet No. 2 in D Major and Beethoven’s String Quartet No. 9 in C Major. DSO Composer-in-Residence Angélica Negrón curated a chamber program with a diverse selection of contemporary composers. Many of the composers she programmed are friends and colleagues in the field, and the ensembles featured orchestral instruments with additional elements such as toy piano, audio playback and electronics. Negron contributed a work of her own to the program, and it also featured pieces by inti figgisvizueta, Allison Loggins Hull, Sophia Jani, Mary Kouyoumdjian, Tania León, Shruthi Rajasekar and Julia Wolfe. This concert was performed in the Meyerson lobby at 7:30PM on Tuesday, November 8.

Learn more at womeninclassicalmusic.com