It’s unfortunate that the Vienna Philharmonic does not allow its members to speak to the press. It would be useful to get some perspective on the orchestra’s business manager’s statement, “naturally they are shy,” which he made when asked about women auditioning for the orchestra. Six years after the orchestra voted to admit women, there are still very few females. The NY Times fails to get a spectrum of interviewees for this article on the scarcity of women in the Philharmonic. We do not hear from any rejected female musicians who, presumably, do have the right to speak to the press, to get their point of view on whether other women are too “shy” to audition. A better word might be “intimidated” or a better phrase may be “unwilling to deal with the discrimination they will face.”

The NY Times article is incredibly tame when compared to this write-up of the Vienna Philharmonic’s employment practices as of December 2002. In here, it is made very clear that actual orchestra membership is only granted after three years of tenure in the Vienna State Opera Orchestra, and even then it is subject to vote. The women currently performing with the Philharmonic are not members, but are working through their three year Opera terms. This essay also claims that women substitutes are brought along specifically for U.S. tours and not used in other places. For an in-depth look at one woman’s experience in a European orchestra, read through an account of the twelve year legal battle of trombonist Abbie Conant versus the Munich Philharmonic. These last two articles were written by Abbie Conant’s husband, and thus cannot be called completely objective, but he notes his sources and is not using false data, just biased tone.