Louisiana Philharmonic Highlights Black Culture and Women Conductors in March

In Thursday’s (3/7) WWLTV (New Orleans), Whitney Miller reports, “In the U.S. orchestra population, fewer than one in four women hold the coveted position of conductor, assistant conductor, or music director. That number grows even smaller when you add in race. This month, the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra is putting women and culture on display…. Conductor Jeri Lynn … is one of the few Black women to lead an orchestra in the country…. But getting that job has been quite the challenge. Johnson says her gender and race were working against her … She says she learned that when an orchestra representative gave her feedback: ‘He said, “You don’t look like what our audience would expect the ‘maestro’ to look like.” She says it pushed her to create the Black Pearl Orchestra. What Johnson experienced is the opposite of what Anwar Nasir of the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra is hoping for women and women of color. ‘I want our industry to understand that they are great artists first and foremost, but they need those opportunities for people to be able to see them,’ said Nasir, LPO’s executive director. This month the orchestra is celebrating Black culture and highlighting two women conductors who are breaking barriers.”