Want to be a conductor? Then you must identify as a woman!

A CLASSICAL music festival has banned men from enrolling on its conductors’ course, saying they will only accept candidates ‘who identify as women’.

The Dartington Trust, based at Dartington Hall in Devon, said it is designed to rectify the gender imbalance in the profession.

But the move has been described as proof the festival has been hijacked by ‘agenda-setting ideologues’.

The Dartington Music Summer School and Festival, which was established in 1953, offers courses, workshops and events open to amateur and professional musicians.

Alice Farnham, artistic director of women conductors with the Royal Philharmonic

Society and one of this year’s tutors, said: ‘The gender ratio in the profession is still well under 10 per cent and this is a wonderful opportunity to help tip that balance.’

However, Norman Lebrecht, who runs the Slipped Disc classical music blog, said: ‘Dartington used to be the happiest of summer festivals, open to all regardless of origin and ability, and to all musical ideas.

‘As someone who once taught a course in musical irony at the festival, I am distraught to see it taken over by agendasetting ideologues.’