On the beat

As the UK government holds an inquiry into misogyny in music, the Musicians’ Union calls for further action to safeguard female players. Is there more that can be done?

Newsand events from around the world this month

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Female players have voiced their concerns to both the MU and ISM

GETTY/ CAIAIMAGE/MARTIN BARRAUD

With the UK music sector having fully returned to work following the lifting of Covid restrictions earlier this year, concerns are again being raised at the level of sexism and sexual harassment in the industry. Musicians’ Union (MU) general secretary Naomi Pohl says that in recent months there has been a disturbing increase in reports to the MU’s Safe Space scheme, an anonymous online reporting tool for musicians who have experienced or witnessed instances of sexism or sexual harassment. This comes as a UK parliamentary inquiry, Misogyny in Music, launched in June 2022 by the House of Commons Women and Equalities Select Committee, is collecting evidence from organisations and voices in the music industry, with a view to making recommendations to policy makers.

The report (PDF: bit.ly/3CHTGFX) released in September by the Independent Society of Musicians (ISM), highlighted the extent and seriousness of the issue. Based on a survey of 660 self-selecting respondents, the report found that 66 per cent experienced some form of discrimination, with 78 per cent of the reported discrimination committed against women, and 58 per cent of discrimination identified as sexual harassment. Anonymised accounts given to the ISM included quotes such as: ‘I had section leaders refuse to shake my hand because I was a woman,’ and ‘Orchestra conductor said he wanted to kiss me and when I refused, he did not rebook me.’

Although misogyny is a societal issue and instances of sexism and harassment occur in many workplaces, the music industry, with its largely unregulated, mostly freelance workforce, has particular vulnerabilities. ‘Freelancers often don’t have the same protections as an employee would have, in terms of policies and procedures and recourse to a tribunal,’ says Pohl. ‘There is also a significant power imbalance in a lot of relationships, with freelance musicians not feeling able to report inappropriate behaviour for fear of losing work opportunities. That’s a culture of the industry that we have to change. We have to make it easier and more acceptable for people to raise a complaint if behaviour is inappropriate.’ The ISM report’s starkest figures illustrate the predicament for freelancers: 88 per cent of self-employed respondents did not report the discrimination that they experienced when working; and for 94 per cent of them, there was no one to report to.

‘We have to make it easier and more acceptable for people to raise a complaint’ – Naomi Pohl, general secretary, Musicians’ Union

JOHN D. AND CATHERINE T. MACARTHUR FOUNDATION

ISM president Vick Bain, who co-authored the report, says that while the proportion of respondents who experienced discrimination has risen significantly from the figure in the ISM’s earlier report on the subject in 2018, some progress is being made. ‘I think our awareness of these issues has certainly increased,’ she says, ‘and that could perhaps explain some of the increase in reporting. Women definitely talk to each other about these things, and warn each other about working with a particular group or person, but it’s sad that it has to be unofficial like this. The next step is ensuring that organisations that employ musicians – freelancers especially – accept that they have a duty of care and responsibility.’ On the back of the 2018 report, the ISM and the MU jointly established a code of practice, which more than 120 music organisations have so far endorsed, and which enshrines a set of principles to tackle and prevent harassment and all kinds of discrimination.

The ISM and MU are among those calling on the UK government to address gaps in legislation by amending the Equality Act 2010 to extend protections to freelancers, and separately to reintroduce rights around third-party harassment to protect musicians and staff working at venues who face harassment from audience members. There are also calls for more education and training around harassment and discrimination. ‘Sometimes there can be a misunderstanding about what sexual harassment is,’ says Pohl. ‘Whereas in an office environment or formal workplace you would know that certain behaviours are unacceptable, in more informal work environments, such as at a festival, where the environment feels more social, people sometimes feel they can perhaps get away with things that they couldn’t in an office environment.’ Addressing employers in the music industry, Bain says she would like to see all organisations be required to implement anti-discrimination and dignity-at-work training, just as they have to for fire safety or health and safety.

One source of hope on the horizon for UK freelancers and those musicians on short-term or informal contracts who experience harassment or discrimination but have no one to officially report it to, is a proposal for an independent standards authority that would have the power to investigate complaints. The idea, proposed by Creative UK and UK Time’s Up, a charity committed to eradicating bullying and harassment in the creative sector, is currently in consultation and would initially cover just TV and film before being rolled out to other creative industries.

NEWS IN BRIEF

Cellist Tomeka Reid receives $800,000 MacArthur ‘Genius’ grant bit.ly/3eAa9nv

Cellist, composer and improviser Tomeka Reid has been named as a MacArthur fellow for 2022. In its citation, the MacArthur Foundation praised Reid for ‘forging a unique jazz sound that draws from a range of musical traditions.’ Reid is among 25 fellows named this year, who each receive an $800,000 ‘no strings attached grant’ as an investment in their creative potential.

Fire destroys Belfast luthier’s workshop bit.ly/3TmUO8q

Luthier Aidan Mulholland is appealing for aid after a fire devastated his shop in central Belfast, Northern Ireland. Mulholland Strings, housed in the Old Cathedral Building, was destroyed on the morning of 3 October. A fundraiser has been set up to help Mulholland recover some necessary tools required to continue his business, with the aim of raising £7,000. As The Strad went to press, the total raised was nearing £10,000. Donations can be made at bit.ly/3CH6Na3

Tabea Zimmermann wins €20,000 Culture Prize bit.ly/3EMSN1f

Violist Tabea Zimmermann has been awarded the Culture Prize from the Gunter and Juliane Ribke Foundation in Germany, in recognition of her achievements in the field of music education and instrumental pedagogy. The award is accompanied by a €20,000 prize. ‘The naturalness, noblesse and perfection of her chamber music-influenced sound ideal, as well as her personality and empathy, explain the great success of her educational work,’ said foundation chairman Wilfried Ribke.

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OBITUARIES

ALEXANDER KOUGUELL

Cellist Alexander Kouguell has died aged 102. Born in Crimea in 1920, he spent most of his life working as a player and teacher in America, primarily in New York.

After training as a cellist in Beirut and Paris, Kouguell left for America to pursue a degree in literature. His first teaching position was at the Peabody Institute in Baltimore as professor of cello. He also played with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra as assistant principal cello. After a year he moved to New York to join the Aaron Copland School of Music (ACSM) at Queens College City University in 1949. He continued teaching at the school for 41 years before retiring from full-time teaching in 1990. He returned for periods over the next 28 years in a part-time capacity.

As a cellist, Kouguell was predominantly a chamber musician, succeeding Donald Anderson as cellist with the Silvermine Quartet where he played alongside violinists Paul Wolfe and Joseph Schor and violist Jacob Glick. His international career came to an end in 2001 after 9/11. In an interview with his brother Maurice Kouguell for the New York Times he said: ‘Like most people I went into shock. Then I called my manager and said I would not fly any more.’ His performing career would officially end four years later after recording his last track aged 85.

At ACSM, Kouguell and his wife established the Alexander and Florence Kouguell Cello Scholarship, awarded to a talented soloist who participates in chamber music and the Queens College Orchestra while excelling academically. He also donated his instruments, bows, music and memorabilia to ACSM.

JAN MARK SLOMAN

US violinist Jan Mark Sloman died on 27 September 2022 aged 73. He was a long-standing member of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra (DSO) and pedagogue at numerous music institutions.

Born in 1949, Sloman was a university scholar at Princeton University and attended the Curtis Institute of Music as a student of Jaime Laredo, Paul Makanowitzky and Ivan Galamian. He also learnt from Joseph Silverstein. In 1977 he joined the DSO as principal associate concertmaster, holding the post until his retirement in 2015. In addition to his role at the DSO, Sloman also served as guest concertmaster with the Pittsburgh Symphony.

Sloman taught as an adjunct professor at Southern Methodist University. In 2015 he joined the violin faculty of the Cleveland Institute of Music (CIM). After having taught for seven summers at the Meadowmount School of Music, he rejoined the faculty of the Heifetz International Music Institute in 2018. Sloman also founded a nonprofit organisation, the Institute for Strings, to provide students in the Dallas area intensive solo and chamber music opportunities.

PAUL SARTIN

British violinist, composer and singer Paul Sartin died on 14 September aged 51. Best known for his work with the folk group Bellowhead, he was also a founder member of two other ensembles: Belshazzar’s Feast and Faustus. All three received BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards during his time with them. He also appeared with the Kelly Bayfield Band and with Jon Boden and the Remnant Kings.

Alongside his work as a traditional violinist, Sartin was known as an oboist, composer, singer and a ‘swanee whistle virtuoso’, according to his biography.

Sartin was a choral scholar at Oxford University and received a first for his master’s in traditional music. In 2007 he received an award from the English Folk Dance and Song Society, as part of its 75th anniversary celebrations.

For over 20 years Sartin was director of the Andover Museum Loft Singers, a non-auditioning community choir specialising in traditional music of the south and south-west of England. As a composer and arranger, Sartin had released various collections of traditional music.

KELLY SILL

US double bassist Kelly Sill died on 28 September 2022. Described as a mainstay of the Chicago jazz scene for 35 years, he served on numerous teaching faculties and performed and recorded with an array of jazz artists.

Born in 1952 in Fargo, ND, Sill grew up in the Chicago area and graduated from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He performed and recorded with a number of jazz artists, including Art Blakey, Joe Henderson, Art Farmer, Eddie Jefferson, Clark Terry, Cedar Walton and Herb Ellis. He performed at the Chicago Jazz Festival, the Elkhart Jazz Festival, the Red Sea Jazz Festival, Thessaloniki Concert Hall in Greece and Symphony Center in Chicago.

Sill’s discography encompassed more than 50 recordings as a sideman and leader, including his own albums The Brighter Side with drummer Joel Spencer, and Interior Window with Spencer and pianist Mike Kocour.

As an educator, Sill served on the faculties of Northeastern Illinois University, Lake Forest College, DePaul University and Northern Illinois University.

WOLFGANG GÜTTLER

The German– Romanian double bassist Wolfgang Güttler died on 18 September aged 77. He enjoyed a performing and teaching career spanning nearly 60 years, as solo bassist with the SWR Symphony Orchestra Baden-Baden and Freiburg, and tutti double bass with the Berlin Philharmonic and Bucharest Radio Orchestra.

Güttler was also a professor at the Hochschule für Musik und Tanz Köln and the Hochschule für Musik Karlsruhe, later taking masterclasses at the Juilliard School. During his career he received multiple awards for his solo and chamber recordings including the Concours de Genève in 1975.

Güttler’s repertoire spanned the classical standards to jazz and contemporary works with pieces by Jean Françaix and Hans-Joachim Hespo commissioned for him.

• CAUSE CÉLÈBRE: Six violins, all with vivid decoration, stand ready to be auctioned in aid of breast cancer research. The Heart Strings Violin Project, run by Johnson String Instrument in Newton Upper Falls, MA, US, gave six local artists six weeks each to decorate a violin with their own or a loved one’s experience of breast cancer in mind. The instruments were then sold in an online silent auction at the end of October. The artists are (left–right) AnnMarie Galvin, Keith Maddy, Regina Martine, Michael Sellers, Yolanda Mazzoni and (not pictured) Brian Murphy. Photos: Michael Sellers

PREMIERE of the MONTH

In uncertain terms

A string ensemble work that’s difficult to pin down

COMPOSER Oliver Leith

WORK will owisp

ARTISTS Manchester Collective/Pekka Kuusisto (guest director)

DATE 2 December 2022

PLACE Royal Northern College of Music, Manchester, UK bit.ly/3ekQ1Wl

Oliver Leith

Manchester Collective

MANCHESTER COLLECTIVE PHOTO VIC FRANKOWSKI. LEITH PHOTO MARCUS LEITH

In anew work for Manchester Collective, British composer Oliver Leith explores the weird and wonderful: from fairies and magic to folk music and spooky sounds. Within the ‘freely structured piece’, Leith explains: ‘Things go in and out of focus, without your knowing what you’re hearing or seeing.’ Each of the four movements – which are named ‘boom push fairy spook’, ‘rot spook’, ‘magic’ and ‘knot face’ – look at this theme in different ways.

The 20-minute work’s first three movements are based on melodies created by Leith, who uses their ‘repetition to highlight the “in and out of focus” theme’. In the third movement, the composer has ventured outside his usual style with new techniques. ‘The ensemble sustains a chord, and by swelling in particular voices, a tune can be picked out. Just like when you hear a tune in the wind and question whether it’s really there,’ he explains.

The final movement features a violin solo comprising fragments of folk music half-remembered by Leith, over which the ensemble plays ‘something completely different’. ‘It plays with familiarity – because you need familiarity to realise something is out of focus.’ The solo, which will be played by either guest director Pekka Kuusisto or the ensemble’s usual leader Rakhi Singh depending on the performance, leaves much to interpretation. ‘I felt confident that I could write something they would put their personality in.’

Leith says it was not difficult to get him to agree to the simple brief: ‘work for string ensemble’. ‘I love writing for strings,’ he says. ‘I can push things a lot further because they’re rich in possibilities.’ As for the ensemble, he says: ‘I’m a big fan. They’re really wonderful players and very open with their repertoire. My piece explores strange feelings, and it’s very abstract. But in the end, that’s what music does best.’

COMPETITIONS

Sirena Huang

Notos Quartet

Guido Felipe Sant’Anna

HUANG PHOTO TODD ROSENBERG. NOTOS PHOTO UWE ARENS. SANT’ANNA PHOTO DAMIAN POSSE PHOTOGRAPHY

1 US violinist Sirena Huang, 28, has won first prize and $75,000 at the International Violin Competition of Indianapolis. She also receives a Carnegie Hall recital debut, recording contract, and website development and maintenance. Huang is a graduate of the Juilliard School and Yale University. Second place and $30,000 went to US violinist Julian Rhee, 22, while third place and $15,000 went to Japanese violinist Minami Yoshida, 24.

2 Germany’s Notos Piano Quartet won the Jeunesses Musicales Deutschland’s Würth Award on 26 September. The prize includes €25,000 and special recognition by the German Music Council. Formed in 2007, the quartet comprises violinist Sindri Lederer, violist Andrea Burger, cellist Philip Graham and pianist Antonia Köster.

3 Brazilian violinist Guido Felipe Sant’Anna, 17, has won the Fritz Kreisler International Violin Competition, which took place at the Musikverein in Vienna, Austria. He wins €20,000, concert engagements and a recording opportunity. Both Michael Shaham, 19, from Israel, and Rino Yoshimoto, 19, from Japan won second place and €15,000. No third prize was awarded.

4 Romanian violinist Maria Marica, 24, has won the violin prize and €15,000 at the George Enescu International Competition. She also receives a special award from the IMK Vienna Association and concert opportunities. Marica currently studies with David Grimal at the Saarbrücken University of Music. Romanian violinist Stefan Aprodu, 18, took home second prize and €10,000, while French violinist Grégoire Torossian, 22, won third prize and €5,000.

APPOINTMENTS

• The Adelaide Symphony Orchestra named Australian violinists Kate Suthers and Emily Sun as their concertmaster and artist-in-association respectively

• UK violinist Emily Davis has been appointed concertmaster of the Stavanger Symphony Orchestra in Norway

• Russian violinist Nikolai Sachenko has joined the Borodin Quartet as its new first violinist

• British violinist Roberto Ruisi has become the Hallé orchestra’s first new concertmaster in 25 years

FORTHCOMING COMPETITIONS & AWARDS

Agustín Aponte International Music Competition in Tenerife, Canary Islands, for musicians 32 years and under. First prize €2,000 Deadline 2 January 2023; competition 15–18 February 2023 Web bit.ly/3ytrO78

Gustav Mahler Prize Cello Competition online, for cellists aged 30 or under. First prize CZK30,000 (£1,000) Deadline 1 January 2023; competition 8 February Web bit.ly/3CJ8x3Y

Carl Flesch International Violin Competition in Mosonmagyaróvár, Hungary, for European violinists aged 20–30. First prize €5,000 Deadline 1 February 2023; competition 4–11 June 2023 Web bit.ly/3Cb71WU

• For current vacancies, see our online jobs page at www.thestrad.com/jobs