“A number of news stories focused on a patronizing opinion rant in the Wall Street Journal, which advised soon-to-be First Lady Jill Biden to drop the ‘Dr.’ in her name, despite her considerable academic credentials,” writes Laurie Niles in last Thursday’s (12/17) Violinist.com. “For one of my colleagues, violinist Colleen Coomber, this whole misogyny-tinged brouhaha brought up another irksome issue for women: the old-fashioned urge to call a female concertmaster a ‘concertmistress.’ I have to agree with her. I remember being the ‘concertmistress’ of my youth orchestra and the vague embarrassment over the name…. I’d be very happy if the word ‘mistress’ conveyed the same thing that the word ‘master’ did. But the sad truth is that oftentimes, words associated with women turn into epithets. That is certainly the case here…. Another truth that goes hand-in-hand with this issue is the traditional reluctance to promote women to the position of concertmaster. There have been considerable gains, but at the beginning of my own career, this bias certainly was common. Colleen … fought hard for the chance to perform as concertmaster…. It’s that kind of persistence that has helped change minds and pave the way for more female concertmasters in today’s orchestras.”
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