Conductors Monica Chen and Kelly Lin have been announced as the Year 3 additions to the Women In Musical Leadership program, said to be the world’s largest initiative for women and non-binary conductors.
Chen and Lin will join existing participants Jennifer Tung, Juliane Gallant, Naomi Woo, and Maria Fuller. The program provides learning and conducting placements with established orchestras, opera companies, and music festivals across the country. The conductors of some of Canada’s leading orchestras will provide mentorship and training.
To this point, the existing participants have worked with mentors such as conductors Rosemary Thomson, JoAnne Falletta, Tania Miller and Karen Kamensek. Toronto Symphony Orchestra’s Music Director Gustavo Gimeno and Winnipeg Symphony’s Daniel Raiskin have given masterclasses.
Why is it needed? The numbers…
According to Orchestras Canada numbers (as quoted by Tapestry using May 2022 figures) fewer than 3% of music director positions in Canadian orchestras with budgets over $5 million are women.
Within the same group of larger orchestras, there are 37 roles with a specific title related to conducting, including Music Director, Assistant Conductor, Associate/Resident Conductor, Artist Partner (OM), Principal Guest Conductor, Artist-In-Residence and Community Ambassador, among others.
- Out of 37, three of those roles are now held by women conductors, accounting for barely over 8%. One of them is Canadian.
Throwing the net wider to include smaller orchestras and others, the numbers don’t get much better.
- 14.8% of music director positions in orchestras with a budget of over $1 million — nine out of 61 orchestras;
- Four of the nine are Canadian.
There are seven opera companies in Canada with titled positions that include music director and conductor — including 13 positions in total.
- 15% of titled positions in Canadian opera companies are women — two out of 13.
Program details
Women in Musical Leadership is led by Tapestry Opera in partnership with Lead Partner Pacific Opera Victoria and Lead Orchestral Partner Toronto Symphony Orchestra. These three organizations work with a broad network of 23 music, opera and performing arts organizations across the country.
The initiative’s overarching goal is to broaden the horizons, and expand on the existing talent pool in the area of musical leadership in Canada by focusing on women and non-binary conductors. Operating nationally, the program is designed to help participants develop their careers.
Tapestry Opera’s Artistic Director Michael Hidetoshi Mori and Tapestry Opera’s Executive Director Jaime Martino issued a joint statement.
“We are thrilled to welcome Monica Chen and Kelly Lin to the now six dynamic and talented conductors who represent the future of classical music in Canada. This program is an important way to make our great and geographically large country into a community that can collectively train and give vital experience to new leaders for music in Canada. We are grateful to all participating companies supporting these conductors’ journeys.
When we began designing this program, hosting six conductors was a pipe dream. At the beginning, we didn’t know if other organizations would want to become partners; we didn’t know if conductors would find the program or find it helpful; we didn’t know if we would achieve our goal of providing a deeply meaningful and enriching experience for young conductors that would truly help advance their careers in Canada. Looking back on the last two years and getting to add Monica and Kelly, such consummate musicians with so much to offer the sector, we can see the dream becoming a reality.”
Bios
Vancouver native Monica Chen has been assisting l’Orchestre Métropolitain’s Yannick Nézet-Séguin since 2021 as a conducting fellow. She holds a Masters in Orchestral Conducting from UBC, and another Master’s degree in violin performance from Indiana University.
- She will take on the role of Assistant Conductor of the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra for the 2023-2024 season;
- One of three finalists at Domaine Forget chosen to perform in concert with the Orchestre symphonique de Québec two years in a row;
- She has recently worked with with Opera Kelowna, Orchestre Symphonique de Québec and the Orchestre Métropolitain;
- Participated in festivals including the Eastman School of Music, Domaine Forget International Summer Academy, the UBC Chamber Music Festival, and the University of Oregon Conducting Institute, working closely with maestros Jonathan Girard, Neil Varon, Thomas Rösner, and Bramwell Tovey.
Chinese-Canadian conductor Kelly Lin is the founder and Artistic Director of Ensemble Lagom. She received a Master’s in orchestral conducting from McGill University, where she was the recipient of the Hnatyshyn Foundation – Christa and Franz-Paul Decker Fellowship in Conducting.
- Studied under mentors such as Alexis Hauserand and Guillaume Bourgogne;
- She has worked with orchestras and ensembles across Canada and internationally, including recently Ensemble Obiora, Ensemble Lagom, Hatch Ensemble, McGill Symphony Orchestra, and McGill Contemporary Music Ensemble;
- She has performed in music festivals such as Toronto Summer Music, Ottawa Chamberfest, and 21 Stops Music Festival.
We’ll be looking forward to hearing more from and about the talented next gen of Canadian conductors.
#LUDWIGVAN
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