Zap the VPO Resources

The New York Times: December 29, 1996
"The Year in Classical Music"
by James R. Oestreich
Page 32

Paragraph 1/8

Paragraph 8/8

Monday, March 3, 1997
Page C11
The New York Times

Feminist Protests and Vienna Musicians

By BERNARD HOLLAND

I never noticed that the Vienna Philharmonic had no female members until I started going to smaller Viennese chamber orchestra concerts and saw string sections dominated by women. This was in the late 1950s, when the feminist movement had just begun to stir in America's symphonic life and had touched Central Europe hardly at all. I had seen young women all around me at the Academy of Music and thought, "So this is where they went." It is an image that has stuck.

The Vienna Philharmonic will finish one of its regular American tours this weekend with three concerts at Carnegie Hall, and I predict that you will see unusual things both inside and outside the hall. Onstage, at least when her services are required, will be Anna Lelkes, a harpist newly named as the orchestra's first full-time female member. Outside, look for pickets, who will not be buying the Vienna's hectic attempt to defuse international resentment against its all-male policy.

Mrs. Lelkes says she is happy. Protesters say she is near retirement, and having solved its immediate public relations problem on tour, first by hiring a woman and then by promising open auditions next year, the orchestra will go back home and live fraternally as it always has.

Members are part of a pool of players known as the Vienna State Opera Orchestra. The Philharmonic began 155 years ago as a kind of recreation for pit musicians. In the opera house, Philharmonic members are bureaucrats, paid and sustained by the government. As Vienna Philharmonic players, they are pure private enterprise, self-governed and independent.

The official voice of protest against the Vienna's exclusionary policies is coming not from the Kaertnerstrasse but from Culver City, Calif. The International Alliance for Women in Music, a coalition of 800 composers, conductors, performers, musicologists and librarians in 31 countries, recently wrote to me, asking that The New York Times join their protest. The arguments on both sides are fascinating and deserve a dispassionate look.

The alliance points to the great numbers of outstanding women graduated yearly from conservatories. Women's rights, it says, are being abused by turning away those of another sex regardless of ability. Certainly the American experience tells us that women make splendid if not superior orchestra musicians. The excellent Minnesota has a female concertmaster. Orchestras like the New York Philharmonic and the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra are well supplied with women as principal players.

The Vienna's main argument against women, and it behooves us to swallow our righteous passions for a moment and look at it, is not that women will make the Vienna Philharmonic better or worse, but that they will make it different. Vienna spokesmen say that scientific analysis confirms what a lot of nonscientific listeners already notice: that despite the homogenization of national styles among other orchestras, the Vienna Philharmonic sounds different. It is not just the differently constructed and fingered wind instruments. There is, many say, a shared sense of phrase and accent that gives this orchestra special qualities.

When it attributes these special qualities to a "male soul," the Viennese leave themselves wide open. But there is a subtext that does put them on slightly firmer ground: that the members of the Philharmonic are stylistically bonded by a longstanding father-to-son succession among players. "But how will you know women will change that character unless you try?" the question will be. "Why should we take the chance when we like what we have?" the Viennese will answer.

Other arguments from Vienna seem downright silly: that women would disturb the orchestra's emotional unity, cause dissension and create competition, disrupt schedules because of pregnancies. Orchestra musicians, male and female, are born with dissension in their genes. Musicians compete by nature. Major orchestras handle pregnancy leaves routinely. This kind of fear-ridden misogyny belongs to another era.

And that may be the point. Vienna and Culver City live according to different clocks and may occupy different centuries. The organized pursuit of sexual equality is a relatively new adventure, with victories, defeats, excesses, regressions, happinesses and frustrations. The feminist footrace is being run faster and harder in the United States than anywhere else in the world. As late as my childhood, calling women "the weaker sex" was perfectly respectable, and let me tell you from personal experience, Viennese society still does.

What we seem to be witnessing is a clash of two provincial capitals. Vienna is a high, thick wall behind which habits and traditions are vehemently protected. Culver City is an expanse of indeterminate boundaries where all things are possible in a hurry. Culver City may have a hard time understanding that the values so immediately important to it may not be important to the Viennese, even to many of its women. An international human rights question is imaginable, but a friend with long experience at the United Nations doubts that it would go very far.

I think the Vienna position is wrong. I suspect also that all those women in the lesser orchestras I remember were not nearly as well paid as they should have been. I also think there is enough maleness in females and enough femaleness in males to render the sex difference musically meaningless.

Feminists in this country can take some pride that their activism has brought about at least one specific action, but they should remember that this hiring is less about the women of Vienna than the women of America.

International tours are acutely valuable in marketing this orchestra's image, not to mention its recordings. The Vienna's other window on the world is the Salzburg Festival, from which it may withdraw after this summer in a dispute over Gerard Mortier's adventurous programming. Pickets on the sidewalks of New York and complaints in the press are bad for business, very bad.

The real and lasting protest has to come from Vienna, not Culver City. Opinions are fine, support is fine, but direct pressure from without is a tricky business.

One analogy is the Helms-Burton Act, which has enraged the world by trying to force other countries to think about Cuba the way we think about Cuba. There are, not surprisingly, a lot of countries that think they can figure out their own values without our interference, thank you very much. Is this a situation we want to set to music?

The New York Times: October 16, 1996
Vienna Boys Choir Hands the Baton to a Woman
by Jane Perlez
Page C11

Paragraphs Seven through Fourteen (on page C16)

As for the (Vienna) Philharmonic, while few question its excellence, even in tradition-bound Austria the 150 or so male players have come under fire for refusing to admit women. So rigorous has the orchestra been in its all-male policy that when it could not find a male player for the harp, it insisted that the Austrian broadcasting company show only the hands of the guest harpist and not her body during televised performances.

In tortured correspondence last summer with Sonja Ablinger, a member of Parliament who asked why the orchestra was a male preserve, the orchestra's chairman, Werner Resel, said that women in the orchestra would result "in two social groups" and that it was unclear what the "cultural effects would be."

Mr. Resel, a cellist, argued that female players might become pregnant, resulting in the need for maternity leaves. Then, he said, the orchestra would have to hire substitute players, which would cost too much money.

In a closing jab, he said if members of Parliament insisted on female players, then the Government would have to increase its tiny subsidy of $200,000 to $2.2 million. The Minister of Culture, Rudolf Scholten, retorted that he would consider cutting support if the orchestra did not improve its hiring policies.

But the Philharmonic, unlike many other first-class orchestras, could easily do without it's token state subsidy. As one of the most sought after orchestras in the world, it commands the highest fees for its tours. At home, an annual subscription starts at around $10,000 and there is a 10-year waiting list.

The intransigence of the Philharmonic has ripple effects in Vienna. The state orchestra of the Bundestheater here announced that it was looking for a flute player. Almost reluctantly, the orchestra announced that it had to have a man. Why? Because the orchestra plays at the State Opera, where the Philharmonic plays, and orchestra players at the State Opera sometimes substitute in the Philharmonic. An Austrian newspaper suggested that additional costumes to disguise a female player would be too expensive.

Ms. Ablinger, the Parliament member who started the ruckus over the Philharmonic, says she is unimpressed with Mr. Resel's excuses. "They just can't imagine women are good musicians," she said. "They want to be like the last of the Mohicans."

But time will catch up with them, Ms. Ablinger said: more than 60% of the students in Austra's music colleges are women. "There are fewer and fewer men," she said. "In 15 to 20 years, they will have to take women."

From: William Osborne <100260.243@CompuServe.COM>
To: "Zap the VPO List"
Subject: Article: "Gender and Character"
Date: 07 Feb 97 13:27:30 EST

The following is a translation of an article by Susi Schnieder in _Der Standard_, entitled "Geschlecht und Charackter" (Thursday, February 6, 1997) page 13. Schneider is the Standard's USA correspondant.

The article includes a large grotesque caricature of a cellist in tails, legs widely splayed and his head thrown back in an exhalted, seemingly sexual expression. At his feet a tiny woman in heels is holding his music. He is shouting the word "Higher!!" On his cello is written "Wiener Philharmoniker". It gives the article a much harder effect than it would otherwise have. The Chairman of the Vienna Philharmonic is a cellist in the orchestra.

On the other side of the article is an inset with the title "Fascist Remnants". It contains excerpts translated into German from a highly critical report about the Vienna Philharmonic which is in the current issue of the _Village Voice_.

_Der Standard_ is one of Austria's most respected papers and has a reputation for sober, factual reporting. This is not the harshest article that has appeared, but it deals more specifically with the actual protesters than any I have so far seen. (I did this hastily. Forgive the imperfections.)

"GENDER AND CHARACTER"
In the United States protests are forming against the Vienna Philharmonic.

New York -"'Zap the VPO!' (losely translated as 'Hit' [Haut] the Vienna Philharmonic) is sounding on the Internet: _The International Alliance For Women in Music_ (IAWM) is calling for the Philharmonic to be put in the cross hairs as long as the legendary orchestra does not accept women. On the occasion of the coming America tour the organisation is planning large demonstrations on the West Coast as well as in front of Carnegie Hall."

"But the IAWM does not want to speak of a boycott (which is being propogated by other women's organisations): 'Our intention is not to boycott the Vienna Philharmonic, and we are not calling for that', explains Catherine Pikker [Pickar], Professor of music at George Washington University and a board member of the IAWM, 'we want to make the public strongly aware of the Vienna Philharmonic's depraved ideology, which assumes that gender or ethnic uniformity can lead to aesthetic superiority.'"

"Until now the organisation has written more that 200 protest letters, including the Vienna Philharmonic, Austrian politicians, and naturally the media. Meanwhile the American media has largely ignored the Vienna Philharmonic, although it has been mentioned in the margins of some reviews and reports that the orchestra still doesn't accept women."

VILLAGE VOICES [a bold subtitle]

"All the same, yesterday Wednesday, the New York weekly, _The Village Voice_ devoted an extensive article to the 'Vienna Philharmonic' and its anti-feminist position. (You can read excerpts in the adjacent box.) It is to be expected that other media will shortly take up the cause. Meanwhile the women's organisations are arming themselves for a protest action. Through the Internet and open letters to their members American women are being called to protest on March 4th and 5th in front of the Orange County Performing Arts Center where the Philharmonic will play under Daniel Barenboim. A similar action is planned in New York on March 7th, 8th, and 9th in front of Carnagie Hall."

"Going beyond [Hinausgehend ueber] the accusations of misogyny, the Chairman of the Vienna Philharmonic, Werner Resel, is accused of racist statements on the Internet-website of the IAWM. [I believe they mean the zapvpo web page]. A 'quote' is presented there ('Whites play the music of white composers for white listeners') which Resel decisvely rejected as a lie when questioned by _Der Standard_."

[End of main article. An adjacent box contains quotes from the _Village Voice_. I include them below in the original english:]

"FASCIST REMNANT"
"Orchestral Scolding: Quotes from the _Village Voice_"

"In Austria where classical music is a passion--not to mention a lucrative export--this 155 year old syphony is a sacred cow. Which is why it can deny membership to a female harpist who has worked with the men for 26 years. And get away with insisting, when this harpist appeared with them on television, that the camera show only her hands."

"Last August, Werner Resel announced that 'in ten years, this question will no longer be a question', only to explain later that he actually meant that no one would care enough in ten years to demand that women be admitted. VPO watchers were not surprised when, just hours after Resel's latest assurances, an orchestra spokesman insisted, 'We haven't caved in.'"

"Composer Pauline Oliveros, who plans to greet the VPO at Carnegie Hall, has her own words for this ideology: 'It is a remnant of fascism'. For Oliveros, the Vienna Philharmonic is merely the most egregious emblem of an authoritarian tradition." [End of inset. The author of these quoted passages is the journalist Richard Goldstein.]

W.O.
100260.243@compuserve.com

Vienna, 13th of January 1997

Dear Mrs. Price,

To your reproach concerning discrimination of womans, I want to write you some things which you probably don't know:

1. We are in our "main profession" the orchestra of the Vienna State Opera. As this, we have to play operas during 10 month of the year, i.e. about threehundred (!) performances in this period. Additionally we have about 100 rehearsals a year. In the remaining freetime we play as "Wiener Philharmoniker", a registered society. It is the reason that no orchestra in the world stays under such a workingpressure as we do.

2. Due to the extremely strong protection laws in Austria - which are much stronger and therefore better than as in the USA - a woman can stay 24 month or two years at home after the birth of her baby. What this abscence on artistic field means can only an artist judge. At our monmentaneous working schedule with the actual regulations, this would nearly not be realisable.

3. We are pushed from the responsable ministery to find a solution. Together with our politians we are on the way to find a solution to this problem. It won't be possible to resolve it "from today to tomorrow".

There would be enough said to this matter, which we don't want to do by letter over such a distance. Of course, I would be to your disposal to inform you personally about our worldwide unique structure. In general I think that one should only raise a reproach against discrimination as soon as one knows the details under which we are artistically working. From such a big distance and just by hearsay you can't get all the necessary informations. That is the reason why we offer to inform you about it.

In the meanwhile I think that we will have resolved this problem in the forseeable future.

With kind regards

VIENNA PHILHARMONIC

Prof. Werner Resel

Kurier
December 29, 1996
January 25, 1997

Translation by Michael Ritterson [Check out the last paragraph -MB] >---------------------------------------
THEIR FILL OF HARMONY--MUTI SETS THE TEMPO

Oh, Riccardo! A tingling like you get with the finest champagne. Sparkling eyes, vivacious laughter, lively gestures. There's an Italian flourish at the fifty-sixth Philharmonic Ball in the Golden Hall of the Musikverein. Is it the moon, or is it Muti? Definitely Muti. The worthy ladies of the Honorary Committee jingle, beam, and coo while waiting with the maestro for their grand entrance. He appeared solo--Povero! Wife Cristina in Milan, because set-designer son Francesco has a premiere at the Piccolo Teatro. How they will all miss Muti at the Opera Ball! He's going back home then, since he'll have to interrupt his Mefistofele rehearsals anyway. Ah, but his locks are nothing short of miraculous: dancing playfully over his cheeks, but lying as if glued to his head when he throws himself bodily into conducting Josef Strauss's "Transaction Waltzes." His teeth gleam pearl-white and seem to say: "All natural!" And no "Only his hairdresser knows for sure!" The ladies titter and sweep him away with them. The Muti thrill travels in waves through the packed house.

Former President Waldheim and Vienna Mayor HŠupl, wives in tow, head up the politicians' contingent. [Education Minister] Elisabeth Greiner finally put a tuxedo for her Fritz under the Christmas tree this year. And Jšrg Haider [head of the Freiheitliche Partei] is off duty: daughter Ulrike danced the first dance. The new Bank of Austria chief Gerhard Randa waltzes devotedly with wife Susanne--but not for long. The bankers' wives have their obligatory dance, then husbands depart for a "summit conference" in the loge corridor: Randa and the Bank-Austria gentlemen Gehl and Jell put their heads together with Raiffeisen Bank's general counsel Christian Konrad, general secretary Ferdinand Maier, and Raiffeisen director Walter Rothensteiner. Othmar Karas stops by, likewise Dietrich Karner of EA-Generali, Claus Raidl of Bšhler-Uddeholm, and Wim Wielens of Philips/Austria.

Meanwhile, ballet deity Vladimir Malakhov elicits a squeal from solo dancer Brigitte Stadler in the quadrille. "Gusti" Ortner, briefly abandoning his ambassador's post in the Vatican to attend the Philharmonic Ball, spins Dagi Koller. Mme. Eliette von Karajan, here with daughter Arabel, enjoys "twenty-four hours in the life of a woman" (freely adapted from Stefan Zweig): "I sense this melancholy nostalgia nowhere else so much as here."

The new City Commissioner for Cultural Affairs, Peter Marboe, meanwhile offers condolences to the Philharmonic's patriarch, cellist Werner Resel: "Women in your orchestra? It's like the Swiss surrendering their neutrality!" "Ja, ja," sighs Resel--and in unison with him, percussionist Schuster, Ball chairman Zamazal, and violinist Gštzel. They've run out of jokes on "topic number one," even in the intimacy of midnight supper in their "chancellery." There they'd rather just raise a toast and bouquets of roses to the housewives of the ball, Eva Angyan and Margit Resel. Spinning and weaving--that's the proper occupation for fragile flowers. Jawohl.

[Front Page, New York Times]

February 28, 1997

Vienna Philharmonic Lets Women Join in Harmony

By JANE PERLEZ

VIENNA, Feb. 27 -- The Vienna Philharmonic, a proud bastion of male musicians since its founding 155 years ago during the gilded days of the Hapsburg empire, bowed to the modern world today and agreed to admit women as full members.

Faced with protests during an overseas tour that will take the orchestra to New York (March 7-9) and Los Angeles (March 4-5), and after being held up to increasing ridicule even in socially conservative Austria, members of the orchestra gathered Thursday in an extraordinary meeting on the eve of their departure and agreed to admit woman, Anna Lelkes, as harpist.

After long maintaining that the orchestra's superior sound and style came partly from its maleness, the members also voted to welcome women to their annual auditions in June, when positions will be available for a violist, a tuba player and a trumpet player.

"There were some statements about the sound of the orchestra and some fears about women, but we could tell them everything will be all right," said Walter Blovsky, the general manager and a violist, after the meeting.

Mrs. Lelkes, who has been one of the orchestra's two harpists for 26 years but was never allowed to join formally and receive full payment and privileges, will appear with the orchestra during its American tour, Blovsky said.

"It looked so helpless until recently," Mrs. Lelkes, who is 57 years old, said Thursday. "But now I am extremely happy."

She denied reports that she was planning to retire after the orchestra's tour.

As other premier European orchestras, notably the Berlin Philharmonic, accepted women players (though only a few), the Vienna Philharmonic was able to withstand clamor over its discriminatory employment practices because it is a self-governing private institution that receives only a nominal $250,000 a year from the Austrian government.

Beyond the possibility of women destroying their special sound, the orchestra had also argued that it would suffer financially if women took maternity leaves and had to be replaced.

But the Philharmonic's insulation was punctured last week when the new Austrian chancellor, Viktor Klima, publicly told the members at an awards ceremony that there was "creative potential in the other half of humanity and this should be used."

The orchestra's spokesman, Werner Resel, responded that the Philharmonic was a "private club" that could do what it liked and would consider disbanding if the pressure continued, calling the public fuss a typicial case of "Austromasochism."

But cooler heads prevailed after Mr. Resel's outburst. In fact, Mr. Resel did not attend today's meeting and will retire in September, Blovsky said.

Blovsky said that today's decision to accept women was made possible by the Government's guarantee to pay the salaries of players who joined the orchestra to fill the places of women on maternity leave.

But critics of the orchestra's discriminatory policies said that the orchestra, which is perhaps Austria's pre-eminent cultural institution, and important in promoting the country's image abroad, said the orchestra was forced to acknowledge reality or have its reputation further tarnished.

"They were quite frightened by the feminist movements in the United States, and they realized it was no fun and no joking," said Elena Ostleitner, an assistant professor at the University of Music in Vienna.

Ms. Ostleitner said the orchestra was aware that the National Organization for Women and other groups, including the International Alliance for Women in Music, had urged boycotts of the performances in the United States.

Judith Arron, the executive director of Carnegie Hall in New York, where the orchestra will play next month with Daniel Barenboim as conductor, said, "We're really, really delighted that they've made this decision."

The Philharmonic serves dual roles. It plays as the orchestra at the Vienna State Opera, which is a state-financed institution, and it also plays concerts in Vienna and on tour abroad.

To qualify for the Philharmonic, a player must first audition and then be accepted as a player with the State Opera. After three years at the State Opera, a player graduates to the Philharmonic.

The auditions in June will be for the State Opera's orchestra.

"There are some good female viola players," Blovsky said. "I am curious if they come and how they are. Equal chances, men and women."

He said it was "seldom you have women who are trumpet or tuba players." In contrast, there ae few male harpists, the reason Mrs. Lelkes had long performed with the orchestra.

If a woman wins at the auditions in June, she will have to stay in the ranks of the State Opera for three years before graduating out of the orchestra pit and onto the full concert stage.

The Philharmonic does not have a permanent conductor but instead votes among its membership to choose guest conductors; a woman conductor has never led the orchestra.

Its CD covers have never included a photograph with Mrs. Lelkes, the harpist. And in the official photograph in a book on the history of the orchestra called "Democracy of Kings," she is absent.

There are 143 members of the Philharmonic and 148 members of the State Opera's orchestra. More than two-thirds of the members approved the resolution allowing women. "I was astonished," Blovsky said.

But he suggested that the all-male tradition would die hard. "The procedure for being in the Philharmonic is a question of social things, of being able to do all the things that come along," he said. "When we choose someone for the Philharmonic, it's not only an artistic quality. It's a matter of being a good colleague."

Being a member of the orchestra means putting the orchestra above everything else, he said. "The divorce rate is very high. We do more than 700 performances, recordings, concerts a year. All other orchestras do about 350."

In an article published last year in The Journal of the International Alliance for Women in Music, the principal flutist, Dieter Flury, said he opposed women joining the orchestra.

"If one thinks that the world should function by quota regulations, then it is naturally irritating that we are a group of white-skinned male musicians who perform exclusively the music of white-skinned male composers," Flury said. But he added, "I am convinced that it is worthwhile to accept this racist and sexist irritation.

"My worry," he continued, "is that it would be a step that could never be taken back."

February 27, 1997
Reuter

VIENNA (Reuter) - Austria's last male stronghold, the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, crumbled Thursday after its musicians voted overwhelmingly to end its male-only policy.

``The Philharmonic Orchestra has decided to take in women,'' said Michael Gerbasits, cultural ministry spokesman.

``A harpist who has played in the state opera for the past 20 years will be the first woman to be admitted,'' he added.

The Vienna Philharmonic, founded in 1842 and famous for its annual New Year's concert, is a private association and its members play at the publicly-funded Vienna State Opera.

The orchestra has come under vehement attack from politicians and rights groups in Austria and abroad for its discrimination against women.

Last week orchestra director Werner Resel threatened to disband the prestigious group rather than allow women in.

``If people keep trying to pressure us (into admitting women), we'll dissolve ourselves,'' he told state radio.

Gerbasits said there was just one vote against the motion at the landmark meeting, which lasted four hours.

``I think it was absolutely necessary to end the discrimination against women in the orchestra,'' he said.

The Philharmonic said in a statement: ``Based on an agreement with State Secretary for Culture Peter Wittman which ensures the quality of both the state opera and Vienna Philharmonic, there will be equal opportunities for musicians of both sexes in the entry (policy) with immediate effect.''

The orchestra volunteered to give up its annual state subsidy of $105,000 as part of the deal after widespread complaints that women were paying taxes to fund a private men's club.

Any player who is absent for more than 24 months will have to audition for their place again according to new rules.

One argument raised by the director Resel against admitting women had been that an orchestra containing women could be paralyzed by mass pregnancy and long maternity leaves.

Gerbasits said the government and Resel had been in negotiations for the past few days ahead of the orchestra's departure Friday for a tour of the United States, taking in London and Paris.

The orchestra had received threatening letters over its policy and U.S. womens' groups had vowed to boycott the tour.

"Vienna Faces the Music: Do Men Play Better?"
by Ruth Walker
February 28, 1997
Christian Science Monitor

Is one of the last bastions of the Austro-Hungarian Empire about to crumble under siege from a group of energized American women on the Internet?

For months, reports have been circulating that the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra (VPO) may finally go co-ed, admitting women as full-fledged members for the first time in its 155-year history. The discussion is to be taken up again today.

Vienna is to classical music what Saudi Arabia is to oil. And, not surprisingly, the VPO is widely regarded as one of the world's finest orchestras. The orchestra's international success, however, subjects it to examination through other cultural lenses.

The International Alliance for Women in Music, which has been lobbying, largely over the Internet, for change in Vienna, has pronounced itself ``dismayed'' by the orchestra's failure so far to vote ``yes'' to admit women.

A statement from IAWM, based at George Washington University in Washington, blasted what it called the VPO's ``utter contempt and blatant disregard for basic principles of equality.'' But for advocates of the status quo, it's as if National Football League teams were being pressured to admit women.

A man's view of music

Equality is not the main event here, the men of the VPO assert. ``There is one common fight in the field, a battle cry, so to speak, and that is artistic quality,'' Helmut Zehetner, a second violinist in the VPO, said in a radio program last year.

He went on to say, ``From the beginning, we have spoken of the special Viennese qualities, of the way music is made here. The way we make music here is not only a technical ability, but also something that has a lot to do with the soul. The soul does not let itself be separated from the cultural roots that we have here in Central Europe. And it also doesn't allow itself to be separated from gender.'' For advocates of gender equality, such remarks are, not surprisingly, a bit off key.

Austria, however, for all its sophistication and affluence, is still a conservative, hierarchical society. It's been less than 80 years since an emperor reigned supreme. Here if you don't know someone's title, you can hardly go wrong asking - with a straight face - for ``Herr Doktor Professor.'' Views like violinist Zehetner's are not only held but voiced with no apologies for political incorrectness.

The orchestra is scheduled to visit the United States next month, performing in Costa Mesa, Calif., March 4 and 5 and in New York March 7, 8, and 9. The IAWM plans to be there, demonstrating and leafleting outside the concert halls.

Sandy Robertson, director of communications for the Philharmonic Society of Orange County, under whose auspices the VPO will perform in Costa Mesa, says she is aware of the planned demonstrations but adds, ``We don't have a sense of how many people this is really going to be.''

In Vienna, the VPO's resistance to change is not universally applauded. In fact, Peter Wittmann, the new secretary of state responsible for cultural affairs, recently blasted the all-male status of the 155-year-old VPO as ``an anachronism.''

But Mr. Wittmann's spokesman, Michael Gerbavsets, argues that the VPO is a private club to which equal-opportunity employment standards cannot be applied.

Maybe. But then again, maybe not.

The VPO is a private organization, but many of its members also play in the Vienna State Opera orchestra, which the government subsidizes. Thus individual musicians have the job security of civil servants and the independence of free-lancers - not exactly a recipe for social change.

The orchestra's patriarchal attitude does not strike a chord throughout Europe, however. Eva Krist, a violinist with the Radio Philharmonie orchestra in Hannover, Germany, says she has had ``absolutely no problem at all'' as a woman in the music world.

Women comprise about 20 percent of all German orchestras, according to the German Orchestra Association in Hamburg.

In the Netherlands, however, gender ratios are even more balanced than in Germany, says Ms. Krist.

Catharina Meints, a cellist with the Cleveland Orchestra, estimates that the proportion of women in major American orchestras is about 10 to 25 percent, with even higher proportions in smaller orchestras.

A sour note in Europe

Whatever the near-term prospects for change in Vienna, the issue is clearly one that has had a certain resonance with the larger public.

All it took was a request for the VPO's telephone number recently to elicit this response from a directory-assistance operator in Dusseldorf: ``The Vienna Philharmonic? Have they started accepting women yet?'' Told of the scheduled vote, she responded, ``Well, it's about time! All these male domains - they've got to go!''

"All-Male Orchestra Admits One Woman"
by Ruth Walker
March 2, 1997
Christian Science Monitor

On the eve of an American tour, the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra (VPO), all-male for the 155 years of its existence, has voted to accepted women as full members.

Specifically, the VPO members have decided to accept a particular woman, Anna Leskes, a harpist. For years, she has performed with the VPO, widely regarded as one of the finest musical organizations in the world, without full benefits of membership, including voting rights. But, a Philharmonic spokeswoman said, ``As of Thursday, she is a member.''

The International Alliance for Women in Music (IAWM), which has been campaigning for change at the VPO, called the vote a historic occasion ``worthy of celebration.'' But it warned, ``Without a specific plan outlining how women will be admitted in the future through the audition process, the VPO can expect further protests.''

The IAWM, based in Washington, is planning to distribute leaflets outside the halls in New York and Costa Mesa, Calif., where the VPO is to perform this week.

Thursday's vote came after a meeting two days before between orchestra officials and Peter Wittmann, Austria's state secretary for cultural affairs. The orchestra is, technically, a private organization that can choose its own members, but it has been under pressure from the government to change its policy. The government subsidizes the State Opera Orchestra, from which the Vienna Philharmonic draws its members.

One of the stated reasons for reluctance to admit women to the VPO was a concern that a wave of simultaneous pregnancy leaves could leave the orchestra unable to perform at full strength.

This issue has been addressed by a new gender-neutral rule, said Michael Gerbavsets, Dr. Wittmann's spokesman: Any member away from the orchestra for more than 24 months must reaudition before returning.

A transcription of the NPR "Morning Edition" broadcast on Friday, February 28, 1997 was forwarded to me. At minute 20:50 into the program Dan Charles reports that for the first time the Vienna Philharmonic has voted to accept women musicians into the orchestra (segment is seven minutes long.)

[Rough translation by Regina Himmelbauer]
Following the exclusive interview with the harpist Anna Lelkes, now member of the VPO. Sorry for my English, but I thought it might be important for you to get some inside informations as soon as possible. Regina Himmelbauer

Salzburger Nachrichten
Saturday, March 1, 1997

"Strictly speaking until yesterday I did not exist officially"

From the inner life of the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra: Anna Lelkes in an exclusive Interview for the Salzburger Nachrichten

For two days she exists: Anna Lelkes, harpist, is the first women Vienna Philharmonic in the 155 years old history of the orchestra. By the way, in the season's programmes of the State Opera she is mentioned correctly in the list of the members of the (State Opera) orchestra besides Harald Kautzky and Adelheid Blovsky-Miller in the rubric "harp". Although she makes constantly one of the party with the Philahrmonic since 1974 within the framework of a "working group" contract, until now Lelkes was never mentioned as player in the Philharmonic programmes or at the Salzburg festivals. SN-writer Heinz Roegle called Ms. Lelkes shortly before her departure to Paris in a house in Hungary near Nickelsdorf, where she had to look after her Great Danes, as she is needed for Richard Strauss' "Heldenleben" at the Philharmonic tour. For the SN she was willing to give a personal statement. Born in Budapest, Austrian citizen since 1974, she knows to formulate very wittily and charmingly, with a enchanting Hungarian accent. She herself refered to that in the interview: "You hear it, at that I am a foreigner, too!"

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SN: Ms. Lelkes, we congratulate you cordially. How did you get to know from your admission to the Philharmonic Orchestra?

Lelkes: I was at the assembly, like usual for a long time. Also on thursday. Only for the vote I had to leave the room. Above all the discussion at the assembly was about changes in the collective agreement in the State Opera, as the Philharmonic Orchestra can only exist if the director of the State Opera gives leave for tours and concerts. This has to be arranged anew, as all are getting pregnant nonstop and take maternity leave all the time and who will play then and so forth, although this all will be financed by the State Opera and sickness insurance fund and the social insurance. Anyhow, the private association Philharmonic Orchestra does not bear any costs regarding pension and so on.

SN: You have always been at the assemblies?

Lelkes: I was engaged at the 1st of January, 1971 in the State Opera and three years later, in 1974, I was accepted in the working group of the Philharmonic Orchestra - without title and secretly. I did not exist until yesterday. I was not mentioned in any programme, I was not in Salzburg. And they have always stated - in the presence of me! - that they do not have a woman.

SN: Did you also not get all the financial advantage which a Philharmonic has?

Lelkes: Since 1974 I was equated financially with the men. I just did not get the Philharmonic title, my name was not allowed to appear. I had no right to vote. At first I even would not have been allowed to take part at the assemblies, as members of the working group are not admitted. But usually the distribution of work and the general planning was discussed there: I quite often have worked more than the male colleague. So they have said: Well, you may come. In course of time I was allowed to attend everytime, otherwise I would not have come to know if and when I have to play and how the contracts look like. I was not treated badly at all, I cannot say this. And especially the younger generation: Especially they have fought out all for me.

At the last assembly, it really was not nice. I have suffered from what I had to listen to there. 'There are no women at the 'Saengerknaben' (Vienna Boy's Choir, R.H.) and no pigs at Lippizanes (famous white horses at the Spanish Riding School here in Vienna, R.H.)', someone said. At the assembly without result last week, to which all sorts of retired members were 'mobilized', everything was blocked. But some have linked up together and also organized a bit and said that it cannot go on like this. And especially the 'juveniles' have jumped up for me in the assembly.

SN: Is there a conflict, a split between the men of the orchestra, of which one keeps hearing recently?

Lelkes: Yes. I was not accepted with one voice, but with a quite great majority, as I heard - I had to leave the room before the vote. They were dreadfully frightened of the demonstrations of the American feminists, and I think that this pressure was decisive. And that is why they said, ok, one has to give some signs that we are not that bad, and we have to stand up for 'equal employment opportunity for both genders', as it was furmulated officially for the press then.

SN: Did you yourself ever express the wish to be accepted as a member? Lelkes: I have waited for this 26 years, again and again, nearly every year, I also have entered a written motion that I want to be accepted at least as an extra or special member. But it was bogged down regularly by some commission or by the executive committee.

SN: Do you think that the discussion about the executive committee of the Philharmonic Orchestra will be continued?

Lelkes: I personally do not want to comment this, but there are indications that this will be so rather certainly.

Los Angeles Times [Front Page]
Tuesday, March 4, 1997

The Sound of Cultures Clashing

When the venerable Vienna Philharmonic voted last week to admit women, it quieted a global furor. But to many in Austria, the orchestra's tradition of sexism is but one aspect of a society that abhors change.

By TRACY WILKINSON, Times Staff Writer

VIENNA--The men of the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra play a music they say is unique.

It is a sound of distinctly full brass and velvety strings, with great precision and dynamic range, a sound shaped by Brahms and Mahler, a sound--some musicians say--that only this all-male, all-white orchestra can make.

The claims of some members that the exclusionary policies of the philharmonic give the ensemble its greatness have created an international furor--one quieted but not resolved when the orchestra voted last week to admit women for the first time in its 155-year history.

On the surface, the controversy involves basic issues of discrimination and equal rights. But at its core lie questions about aesthetics and economics and the changing definition of cultural identity.

Many see the Wiener Philharmoniker as symbolic of the way Austrian society stubbornly clings to tradition. Indeed, the former seat of the Hapsburg Empire remains a tightknit, conservative country locked in rigid propriety and strongly influenced by the Roman Catholic Church.

The orchestra's policies have sparked a U.S.-led protest and the prospect of demonstrations when the philharmonic performs in Orange County tonight and Wednesday.

There has, however, been little domestic protest. Numerous Austrians participating in recent radio phone-in programs voiced support for the orchestra, and many of the callers were women.

But Austria is changing, slowly, having joined the European Union, where it is being forced to become more economically efficient and conform its social standards to those in the rest of the West. And immigration during the past decade has created a less homogenous population.

For this new Austria, the orchestra imbroglio is an embarrassment, the musicians who resist change seen as fuddy-duddy dinosaurs.

"The tradition [of a male-dominated artistic world] is so heavily imprinted in this country that I think that is the main factor--they are afraid of change," said Agnes Grossman, who, to the amazement of many, became the first female director of the 499-year-old Vienna Boys Choir in October.

Yet Grossman had to make her musical name in Canada, not her native Austria, because of the lack of opportunity at home.

"Austria is a land of tradition, and one of its great traditions is this orchestra, with its very specific, wonderful sound," said Grossman, 53. "It happens to be men who have created this tradition, because 100 years ago there would not be women even considering entering the orchestra.

"The misunderstanding is that only men can do it. With the evolution of women becoming excellent musicians, we know that talent does not depend on [being a] man or woman. . . . Some people in Austria have not moved with this evolution."

National Identity
Controversy over the orchestra has been a blow to Austrians whose very national identity is wrapped up in Mozart, opera and the sound of music.

Following the collapse of the once-proud Austro-Hungarian Empire in 1918, what was left of Austria became mired in political and economic chaos. Its subsequent collaboration with the Nazi Third Reich and native son Adolf Hitler brought new shame on the country. Austria then found itself situated awkwardly on the backside of Western Europe, the last outpost before the Communist East Bloc and the bloody Balkans.

Its main claim to fame was its contribution to music, culture and the classical arts--a source of national pride and validation, as well as economic possibility thanks to tourism and worldwide marketing.

"Our cultural identity is the most important identity that we have," said Ioan Holender, manager of the Vienna State Opera Orchestra, from which the philharmonic draws its members.

What kind of cultural identity, though--promoted by the government and permitted by society--is the question on many women's minds.

Regina Himmelbauer, a music historian who tried to rally the protests from Vienna, said the orchestra's anointed role as international "ambassadors" since the end of World War II has projected a less-than-inclusive image and made the ensemble untouchable, sacrosanct.

"You question them, you are questioning Austrian culture," she said. "It is very difficult to criticize them."

Consequently, the campaign to promote women in the philharmonic remained a quixotic endeavor locally, waged by a few people labeled "enemies" of the orchestra.

The discrimination practiced by the Vienna Philharmonic is typical of Central Europe. Although the Austrian ensemble was, until last week, the only all-male orchestra of world-class stature, Germany's leading orchestras refused to admit women until the 1980s, and the Czech Symphony continues to keep them out, according to Elena Ostleitner, professor of music and sociology at the University of Vienna.

Musicologists suggest that philharmonic members who resist the integration of women may really be afraid of changes in their community rather than in their sound.

Stereotypes that women do not have the lung power or upper-body strength to play tubas, trumpets and percussion instruments have faded in most concert halls. Blind auditions have shown that it is often impossible to distinguish between male and female virtuosos.

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But an all-male orchestra, like any all-one-anything institution, creates its own mystique and camaraderie, a kind of locker-room culture in which members feel cozily comfortable with one another. Stories abound of philharmonic members sharing ribald jokes or perusing Playboy magazines during performances.

With its vote to admit women, the orchestra immediately named harpist Anna Lelkes a full member. She had languished for 26 years in a kind of limbo, playing with the ensemble because of a shortage of male harpists and given equal pay, but not permitted to join. Her name never even appeared in concert programs until a 1995 performance in New York.

"I did not exist until [now]," Lelkes told a newspaper in Salzburg, the central Austrian music capital, after the vote.

Most likely, change will come to the Vienna Philharmonic slowly, and it will be years before a significant female presence develops.

Likely Tensions
At least initially, impinging on the old members' way of life could create resentment among them that would strike a discordant note in how the ensemble operates. The first women to join Lelkes will have a tough time of it, Ostleitner predicted.

"If women are around, men have to be more circumspect, and that can have an impact on the way they live their day-to-day lives," Susan McClary, professor of musicology at UCLA, said in a telephone interview. "But those are cultural tensions, not musical ones, even though they would affect the way people feel about their music-making."

Because women have been excluded from the philharmonic, they also have been denied the salaries, lucrative recording contracts and other financial perks reserved for the men at the top.

"The more an orchestra is valued, the less women are allowed in," said harpist Gabriela Mossyrsch, 31, who has played for the last nine years with Vienna's popular, lesser-paid Folk Opera Orchestra, which is about a quarter female.

The Vienna Philharmonic was founded in 1842, at a time of imperial rule and monarchal absolutism. Even today, it operates like a guild. Fathers in many cases pass on the tradition and entitlement to their sons. The musicians also are professors at Vienna's leading conservatory, teaching their sons and other young men who will later become members of the orchestra and professors themselves, who in turn will teach new generations, continuing an unending line of like-trained musicians.

All of that creates a homogeneity, a uniformity of style and performance, said musicologist Joyce Shintani, a Los Angeles native who has conducted in Austria and Germany for years.

"They all move their bows in the same way," she said. "They all take a breath in the same way."

But women are learning the same style and have been nurtured by the same sound, Shintani and others said. Roughly half the student body at the prestigious conservatory Hochschule Fur Musik are women. Yet never has a philharmonic member chosen a woman when he has brought his star pupil to sit in on an orchestral performance.

Its detractors portray the Vienna Philharmonic as not only an all-male bastion but one of all-white maleness, as loath to hire musicians of color as it is to hire those with ovaries.

Indeed, all 140-odd men of the philharmonic are white, and only two, father-son violinists, are Jewish, according to orchestra officials. That largely reflects Viennese society, which is predominantly white and where a tiny Jewish community is all that is left after the Holocaust. And while immigration in recent years has brought people to the city from the former Yugoslav federation, Eastern Europe and Arabic countries, they are for the most part relegated to second-class status.

The problem comes in whether the orchestra links its ethnic exclusivity to its perceived musical superiority, as critics charge.

Philharmonic members have been quoted over the years as favoring ethnic homogeneity as well as stylistic continuity. Now officials angrily deny that they are racist. In addition to the two Jewish violinists, the philharmonic lists two Gypsy (Roma) musicians and six "foreigners" from countries that include Denmark, Slovenia, the Czech Republic and New Zealand.

Asian musicians, especially from Japan, are flocking to Vienna to study. Many now attend the Hochschule, but none has been invited to audition, according to philharmonic officials.

New members "have to be integrated into our little community," said philharmonic Chairman Werner Resel, because "we have to sit next to each other for 40 years." He said artistic talent is the basis for choosing musicians, but he also said the orchestra will continue its practice of requiring pictures of applicants before they are invited to audition.

Resel, a cellist, said labor regulations governing maternity leave, which can last two years under Austrian law, and similar matters had to be rewritten before women could be admitted because of the workload of nearly 400 concerts a year, including opera performances, plus scores of rehearsals.

"It is not that we don't like women or that we are some kind of machos," violist Walter Blovsky said. "There are serious problems" that come with including women.

And then there is that unique Viennese sound.

Origins of 'Sound'
In addition to the musicians' skill and similar training, the sound comes from the instruments used, most of which are made in Austria with antique methods of construction that give them a special resonance. Playing them is, in the words of one expert, like using an Underwood manual typewriter instead of an IBM electric.

The oboes, tubas and other wind instruments produce rounder sounds than, say, in the United States, where influences such as Dixieland jazz favor a more projecting sound.

"This is a very special orchestra with a very special sound, and it would be very bad to change that sound," said Holender, the state opera director. "But it is not excluded that women can do it." Orchestras that have admitted women "are surely none the worse for having a number of women."

Wilkinson is The Times' Vienna Bureau chief.

Copyright Los Angeles Times