In Wednesday’s (11/6) McGill Reporter, a publication of McGill University in Montreal, Canada, Doug Sweet reports on a concert by the McGill Symphony Orchestra at which composer Kaija Saariaho was presented an honorary degree by Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal Music Director Kent Nagano. The McGill orchestra played Saariaho’s Laterna Magica as well as works of Verdi, Wagner, and Ravel. “After Nagano presented Saariaho with her degree, she spoke movingly about the need to continue fighting for the equality of men and women in the world of music. ‘After having gone through many battles during my early professional years I felt that the equality of women in music was advancing.… Recently, however, there have been polemics generated by statements coming from public persons and even the head of the highest music education institution in France, arguing that there are several natural reasons to explain why women are not suitable for conducting. This made me understand that today, 30 years after my own battles, young women still have to experience much the same everyday discrimination I went through. I have understood that the situation is not slowly getting better, but that the improvements seem to have stopped a while ago.… Institutions such as McGill University are primary venues, well-equipped to strive for equal rights and possibilities in all the fields of study. Please continue this work by encouraging and supporting a rich human future, a future of diversity and equality.”
Posted November 6, 2013
