Women Conductors Take Center Stage in “Maestra” Documentary

In Saturday’s (6/3) New York Times, Farah Nayeri writes about Maestra, “a documentary directed by Maggie Contreras that’s premiering at the Tribeca Festival … The documentary spotlights a profession—conducting—which historically has all but excluded women. It tracks five candidates vying for the top prize in La Maestra, a female conducting competition co-founded in 2019 by the French conductor Claire Gibault … Contreras, 39, a documentary producer making her directorial debut, delivers an up-close-and-personal portrayal of the contestants as they rev up for a competition whose judges include [Marin] Alsop and Ms. Gibault. The five contestants profiled in the film were from France, Germany, the United States, Greece, and Poland…. Contreras: ‘Growing up in Tucson, Ariz., whenever there was a free concert of the Tucson Symphony Orchestra in the park, my mom would make sure we went…. Our film is a microcosm of what society needs to be…. It was very important for me to strip down the stereotypes of what a conductor is: the image of that authoritarian character belittling the musicians, who are quaking in fear and reverence. Women are not only having to step into that role, but also having to figure out how to get rid of that stereotype.’ ”