Last Rites for the Proms? Gender balancing will turn music lovers off in droves

Feb 28, 2018 by Jill

by Ann Farmer, The Conservative Woman:

The BBC has pledged to introduce ‘gender balancing’ to its Proms programme, with half of all new commissions going to female composers by 2022.

The Proms is one of 45 international music festivals signed up to an initiative which aims to ‘create much-needed change’ in an industry apparently rife with sexism.

This was highlighted recently by (male) Latvian conductor Mariss Jansons, who said that ‘seeing a woman on the podium . . . well, let’s just say it’s not my cup of tea’.

The aim of the initiative is to increase the proportion of female performers, although the 50/50 gender balance will not apply to soloists, orchestras or conductors.

Clearly, however, there needs to be a training programme for female conductors, or the existing ones will be grossly overworked, while many excellent male conductors will be thrown out of work so that barely-trained conductresses can mount the podium. Still, a cohort of attractive young ladies fresh from music college might boost the ratings among those who would not normally watch – purely attracted by their enthusiasm for female equality, of course, although perhaps in time the boring conductor’s uniform can be discarded for something more flattering to the female form.

More likely, however, real music lovers will switch off, and head towards the many alternative ‘proms’ concerts where music is valued over political correctness and virtue-signalling.

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