Who owns the podium? Expectations have changed
Rules about how symphony leaders should look are being redefined, conductor Tania Miller says
The Victoria Symphony orchestra landed its first Canadian female conductor when it hired Tania Miller 13 years ago and began to shake up our expectations of who can wield a baton in this country.
Miller was the only Canadian female conductor of a major Canadian orchestra at the time.
The mother of two will lead her symphony Thursday at Roy Thomson Hall in its first visit to Toronto. Celebrating its 75th anniversary, the Victoria Symphony is engaging in its first Canadian tour, which includes stops in Ottawa, Quebec City and Duncan, B.C., as well as Vancouver.
This is a bittersweet event as the Legacy Tour marks the beginning of the end of Miller’s direction of the symphony. Poised to search for a new position in a larger community, Miller has given notice that she is leaving at the end of the 2016-17 season, her 14th year.
The rigid roles for conductors have loosened greatly during this time, says Miller, admitting she probably contributed to some of the changes in attitude by continuing to work at the podium through two pregnancies.
“I just kept getting bigger suits made,” says Miller, who only missed one concert during her tenure, when her eldest son Matthew, now 10, arrived the day before an annual outdoor concert for 40,000 people. She returned to work five weeks after each birth.
She was also only 33 when she was hired by the Victoria Symphony.
“Now there’s no set expectation of how we look, dress, act — a conductor doesn’t have to be a musician,” she says, noting that singers have recently been conducting, including Canadian Barbara Hannigan, who conducts while singing. Hannigan also specializes in contemporary music, thereby blazing two trails at once.
“We are redefining what is conducting,” says Miller. “This is an interesting era for people. I’ve seen conductors work from the keyboard or violin.”
Jeanne Lamon, for example, “leads from within” as she plays the violin along with the Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra. Lamon, the orchestra’s chief artistic adviser, was its artistic director from 1981 to 2014 and directed Tafelmusik as well as other orchestras.
Miller is one of four women conducting in the TSO’s current season. Pianist An- gela Hewitt leads the TSO from the keyboard on April 13, 15 and 16; Dina Gilbert conducts Peter and the Wolf May 14; and Hannigan conducted the TSO and sang last October.
“All conductors will always face scrutiny any time they walk to the podium for the first time,” Miller says, adding her system is to “know the repertoire, have good ideas and inspire the orchestra.”
“I also want to connect with the people onstage and in the audience. I love when I see young girls in the audience, eyes shining with expectations,” she says.
Miller would like to be artistic director of a major orchestra but will take guest conducting gigs until the perfect fit is found. She lives with her orthodontist husband, Tom Moonen, and sons Ben, 8, and Matthew in Vancouver and maintains a pied à terre in Victoria.
Canadian pianist Stewart Goodyear, who has appeared many times in Victoria, is travelling with the Victoria Symphony.
“We wanted a great Canadian artist and one we have a relationship with over the years,” Miller says. Entr’actes by Canadian composer Michael Oesterle will be featured along with compositions by Aaron Copland ( Appalachian Spring) and Igor Stravinsky ( The Firebird).