# Where Are the Female Orchestral Musicians? Vienna 1989



## Barelytenor (Nov 19, 2011)

I am trying to have a not-depressing Christmas Day but miss some people who are gone. Anyway.

I pulled out a favorite, Carlos Kleiber, on DVD in 1989 conducting the Vienna Philharmonic in Strauss waltzes. Johann I and II and Josef, thank you very much, not Richard!

But during the very first piece, something quite odd struck me. There is not a single woman in the orchestra. Lots of finely dressed, attractive people of both sexes in the audience, but I bet some of those women were thinking, "Where are the women in the orchestra?"

So, anyone from Vienna? Can anyone tell me, was this a purposeful choice on the part of some male chauvinists? Surely there are lots of qualified female players who could have fit in nicely.

What's up with this?

And wishing you all Merry Christmas or your observance of choice.

Kind regards, :tiphat:

George


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## flamencosketches (Jan 4, 2019)

The first woman to join the Vienna Philharmonic wasn't until 1997. Even today there's only maybe a half dozen women in the orchestra. They are one of the most staid, conservative institutions in the world. The VPO was definitely a boys club for the longest time.


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## Heck148 (Oct 27, 2016)

flamencosketches said:


> The first woman to join the Vienna Philharmonic wasn't until 1997. Even today there's only maybe a half dozen women in the orchestra. They are one of the most staid, conservative institutions in the world. The VPO was definitely a boys club for the longest time.


Yup - VPO probably last to get with it...
interesting - I went to a Chicago Sym concert last year - out of 32 violinists - I and IIs - 17 of them were Asians, and 15 of the total were women!! roughly half the section....


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## Becca (Feb 5, 2015)

An article about women and the VPO from a few days ago in the NY Times. They say that there are now about 15 women who are permanent VPO members.

https://static01.nyt.com/images/2019/12/27/multimedia/27SP-ORCHESTRA-INYT-2/merlin_166091778_eed1313f-ef34-4bd2-aae2-fbe7a98ee677-superJumbo.jpg

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/23/arts/music/women-vienna-philharmonic.html


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