Pioneers in Orchestral Conducting: Ethel Leginska

“Women in Music Today: An Interview with Ethel Legenske, Conductor of the Boston Women’s Symphony Orchestra and the Chicago Women’s Symphony” By Ethel Lenginske (Iota Alpha)

Transcribed from the Triangle, VOL XXIII, No. 2 (Feb. 1929)

A terrific problem faces the woman who wishes to take her place on the same par with man in music, because no one wants to give her a chance.

I went to Munich to study the technique of the baton that I might intelligently conduct my own compositions. Then too, conducting held great fascination to me. My teacher, Rupert Hagen, gave me much encouragement, insisting that I had a talent in this field. He arranged two programs in one week in Munich for me and the critics were most favorable and said, “She conducts with authority.”

The critical moment was at hand. I was urged on every side to make this my life work. I did not decide in a moment, even to take a further step in this direction. I thought very seriously. My career as a pianist was established. Was I to give up a certainty for something so very uncertain and enter an entirely new field not only in my own life but in the life of woman? But — it was a big thing, a much bigger thing than being a soloist. The symphony is bigger than the sonata, the orchestra than one performer. I accepted the offer to conduct the orchestra in Berlin and a little later in London and had no more trouble than any new man conductor. I came back to America and you know what has followed.

All the time my thoughts were forming a women’s orchestra. Why not a women’s orchestra? Many women play as well as men, and it is very unjust not to give them the same opportunity. To be sure women do not yet take such work seriously enough. They say they are tired of working for so little pay Yet, until they prove that they can fill their place in a big orchestral organization, they cannot demand the same pay as men receive. It is a vicious circle arguing around and around, that time alone can break into.

A woman should have the chance to play in our big orchestras. If she has talent, and her performance, her interpretation and musical background are as good as a man’s, why not? What do I care if the player be woman or man, young or old, as long as she is serious? Of course, if, as men think, all women are frivolous, wanting to take time to look in her mirror to rouge and use lipstick: Out she goes! But women are not all of this type. Many of them are much more talented and proficient than many of the men now engaged in our orchestras. I should say that 25% of our orchestras today could be women to good advantage, for a woman when talented and serious is a worker, and lends a spirit of enthusiasm that fires the ambition of all who come in contact with her, and man does not like to have woman’s work better than his.

There should be a women’s orchestra in every city, and they should play the same works as our big orchestras anywhere. I never compromise because they are women. That would not be good for them. We play Beethoven, Tchaikovsky, in fact all the great composers. Every program should have some modern work also, of the good writers. There is much of beauty as well as interest in these modern works that we must know. Music like life goes ever forward, there is no going backward and we must not find ourselves left behind in this great life of ours.

In the future there will be a great women’s orchestra, if we get the backing, and the people with means will only take us seriously as indeed we are. All great orchestras are underwritten for thousands of dollars. If we could get thirty thousand dollars, much less any amount for other orchestras, the future of our orchestra would be assured.

Every conductor must live the music of the players. Every movement must be an interpretation of the soul of the text. To do this, one must study always. The technique of the baton is of just as much importance as the technique of any instrument is to the player of that particular instrument. One should study under different conductors. Each one has something of his own individuality to give to his pupils. As soon as my season is over, I will go this year to sit at the feet of Toscanini, to study his methods. We must not forget the children. In our tour this year we gave a number of afternoon concerts for children. These concerts given by many orchestras over the country are one of the biggest things in American music today.

I always give the children a little friendly talk first, telling them that they have to work when they attend a concert, just as hard as the players, because if they sit still and listen carefully, and intelligently, they are working as hard as the orchestras. And really the children are often better in this respect than the grown folk. We then talk over the compositions on the program, and the tone quality of the different instruments. It is surprising how much these children know of both the instruments and the main themes of the great works. I also show them what the beat of the baton means by having a little drill, such as having them all say the word “Oboe” on my down beat. After a few attempts the whole audience gives me back a big “Oboe,” in perfect unison instantly on my down beat. Thus the children unconsciously learned the meaning of the baton. These concerts mean a bigger and better audience in the future; an audience of musical intelligence demanding the best of everything in music; an audience which means a musical America.

It has been hard, but any pioneer finds it hard — hard not to be taken in all seriousness, but we are serious. We are here to stay. We will have a great women’s orchestra. Women will have her place in the big orchestras of the world. Great things are before us in the future.

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This article was written from an interview given to our national editor and national president after a luncheon given by the St. Louis Alumnae Club in honor of Ethel Leginska, guest conductor of the St. Louis Symphony and Mary McCoy, leading lady in My Maryland. If you can in these lines get just a little of the keen intellect and intense personality of our Ethel; of the dynamic force behind each word that made one feel as if every word should be in italics or underscored, we will feel we have given you much. Her hands and expression are just as persuasive when she speaks as when she is conducting and one must hear her to realize the great seriousness, charged with such vitality and friendliness that it electrifies one to be in her presence. Indeed we are proud to claim one who in such a great pioneer movement has created an organization of women that in so short a time has made a place in the world that the world will always feel the need of from now on.

We are happy to give you this new picture in which she proudly pointed out her Mu Phi pin which had photographed so well. We too, are proud of that pin, and her great musicianship and sisterly interest. She will inspire each and every one of us to make more serious efforts towards greater attainments in the greatest of all arts, music.

—Pearl N. Johnson (Theta), Triangle editor (1929)

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Born Ethel Liggins in 1886, Ethel Leginska (Iota Alpha) was a British pianist, conductor, composer and pioneer of women’s opportunity in music performance. She adopted the stage name Leginska in 1906 at the suggestion of British socialite Lady Maud Warrender. At that time, many of the top-class musicians were Polish. Leginska established the Boston Philharmonic Orchestra, which she conducted (1926-27); she was head of the Boston Women’s Symphony Orchestra (1926-1930); she founded the National Women’s Symphony Orchestra in New York in 1932 and served as the director of the Chicago Women’s Symphony Orchestra (1927-1929). She died in Los Angeles in 1970 at age 83.