Proms women quota ‘is unfair to male composers’

GIVING half of all new BBC Proms commissions to women will discriminate against male composers, a leading figure in classical music has warned.

Sally Cavender, vice-chairman of Faber Music, said the quota was unnecessary because there has been a “huge recent expansion of opportunities” for female composers and “the playing field is relatively level in terms of opportunities and encouragement”.

The BBC’S pledge to give half of all new Proms commissions to women by 2020 means that opportunities for talented men “will have to fade regardless of their talent or pre-eminence, given that there is only so much space in programmes for new music”, she said.

The backlash follows the announcement earlier this week that the Proms and more than 40 other music festivals have signed up to a gender equality initiative. David Pickard, director of the Proms, said the move was “vital to the creative development of the world’s largest classical music festival”.

At last year’s Proms, 10 of the 29 contemporary composers were women.

Ms Cavender said in a letter to The Times: “I have never witnessed any discrimination against female composers; what I have seen is that there were formerly fewer of them.”

Others in the industry said they supported the decision taken by the Proms. Janis Susskind, MD of music publisher Boosey & Hawkes and a former chairman of the Society for the Promotion of New Music, said: “I agree that I have not been aware of discrimination against women composers, and I understand the point that this may disadvantage others, but it feels to me like the right thing to be doing in this age.”

On International Women’s Day next Thursday, Radio 3 will dedicate its whole schedule to music composed by women.