Music to women’s ears as Proms signs equality pledge
Festival says female composers will make up half its commissions by 2022 as it joins campaign
THE BBC Proms is to introduce gender balancing to its programme, pledging that half of all new commissions will go to women by 2022.
Female composers appearing in this year’s programme include Anna Meredith, who will create a “monster orchestra piece” for the First Night of the Proms to be performed outside the Royal Albert Hall with images projected on to its walls.
The Proms is one of 45 international music festivals signed up to a new initiative which aims to “create muchneeded change” in the industry by increasing the proportion of female artists. However, the 50/50 gender balance will not apply to soloists, orchestras or conductors.
Sexism in the classical world was thrown into the spotlight recently by Mariss Jansons, the acclaimed conductor, who told The Daily Telegraph that “seeing a woman on the podium… well, let’s just say it’s not my cup of tea”.
He later apologised for his “undiplomatic” comment. Festivals were invited to implement the gender balance pledge, called Keychange, “in a way that best makes sense to their programme and music genre”. Some have chosen to balance their line-up of performers, but the Proms will restrict the initiative to contemporary composers.
David Pickard, the director of the BBC Proms, said the 2022 target is “a crucial statement for gender equality by the arts industry”.
At last year’s festival, 10 out of 29 contemporary composers were women, including Hannah Kendall, Judith Weir and Lotta Wennäkoski.
Meredith, who mixes contemporary classical, pop, electronica and rock in her compositions, has campaigned for greater female representation in the industry.
She said: “I think it’s fantastic to put a date on this and have something solid to aim for. There are many fantastic women composers who weren’t given recognition in their lifetime. Now there are loads of younger female composers who are getting out there, writing amazing music.” She dismissed Jansons’ comments as “bonkers”, but said: “There is obviously sexism in classical music, as in every industry.
“When you hear comments [from Mariss Jansons] it comes as such a shock because you want to believe we are all heading in the right direction, then you hear something like that and think, ‘Oh, we’re still back there.’”
When Marin Alsop became the first female conductor of The Last Night of the Proms in 2013, she used her platform to make a speech calling for greater inclusion in the classical world.
“I have to say I’m still quite shocked that it can be 2013 and there can still be firsts for women,” she told the audience, adding: “Here’s to the second, third, fourth, fifth, hundredth to come.”
Days earlier, Vasily Petrenko, the principal conductor of the National Youth Orchestra and the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, claimed orchestras perform better for male conductors because “a cute girl on a podium means musicians think about other things”.
The 45 festivals signed up to the gender initiative include Manchester Jazz Festival, Liverpool International Music Festival, Aldeburgh Festival and Cheltenham Music Festival. None of the major pop and rock festivals, such as Glastonbury or London’s Wireless Festival, have signed the pledge. Wireless last year featured just three women.
Last year, a BBC survey found 80 per cent of festival headliners were male.
‘There are many fantastic women composers who weren’t recognised in their lifetime’