BY EMILIE WEINBECK, FEATURES EDITOR
Starting in 2022 big changes are coming to the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra. Last week the first female conductor, Nathalie Stutzmann, was named to the orchestra for the next four years. She is just the second woman to lead a major U.S. orchestra.
Stutzmann had the dream of becoming a conductor ever since she was a child and now that dream has become a groundbreaking reality. In the 77 year history of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, there has never been one female conductor until now.
Stutzmann is currently the only woman to lead a major U.S. orchestra, following in the footsteps of Marin Alsop, who was named music director to the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra in 2007. Alsop was the first woman in the U.S. to hold this position in a major orchestra and this year she concluded her historic 14-year tenure.
Stutzmann is the daughter of two opera singers and naturally studied music in school. She was repeatedly passed over as a conductor in favor of men as her career went on. She ended up becoming a celebrated contralto, the lowest range of a classical female singing voice while continuing to have aspirations of having her breakthrough as a conductor.
“It was so frustrating,” she told the TODAY Show. “It was so sad for me that after a couple of months it was clear to me that at that time, as a woman, forget it, because you will never make it.”
Stutzmann performed as a contralto in some of the world’s most prestigious opera houses while studying the maestro’s every move in the pit. “I sang with all the greatest conductors in the greatest orchestras of the world, but I think my conducting dream was always there.”
When Stutzmann decided to seriously pursue a career as a conductor, she had to overcome a lot of skepticism of making the transition as a singer and being a rare female figure on the podium. “I must admit that I spent many nights coming back to my hotel in tears, and thinking the next day I stop,” she said. “Because if conducting is this, if I’m going to be treated so bad, I will stop. And the next morning I was going up again.”
The determination is what gained Stutzmann respect over the years and got her to reach such a historic milestone. She takes great pride in knowing that she is helping to pave the way for more women to be able to conduct major U.S. orchestras.
Stutzmann conducted her first performance with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra last week and will do so again in mid-March as current conductor, Robert Spano, prepares to leave the orchestra after a successful 20-year career. Spano plans to remain active as a pianist, performing on a regular basis as a chamber musician. He also plans to continue to compose his own music as a free-time activity.
The Atlanta Symphony Orchestra has won 27 Grammy Awards and information about their upcoming shows can be found on their website.
