Good News: Female conductors will open and close the Proms for the first time

Finnish composer Dalia Stasevska will be conducting the opening ceremony, and American Marin Alsop will close the festival. 

On the decision, David Pickard, director of Proms said, “We’re moving in the right direction toward equitable representation, but it’s a slow process.” 

Stasevska and Alsop are two out of ten female conductors who will make an appearance this year. Pickard added, “Is it enough? No, but the motivation to change these things is enormous.” 

Alsop was the firm female conductor to close the Proms in 2013

This is not the first time that either conductor has made a splash at the Proms. In fact, in 2013 Alsop was the first woman to conduct the closing concert, at which she commented, “I’m still quite shocked that it can be 2013 and there can be firsts for women. Here’s to the seconds, thirds, fourths, fifths, hundreds.” 

Stasevska has also closed the ceremony before, and in much more challenging circumstances. In 2020, due to Covid regulations, she conducted with no audience present. This was a particularly difficult task given that the orchestra and choir were all socially distanced. In a feature with BBC Music Magazine, she said, “I don’t know if many people realise how difficult it is to keep together when the sound is travelling from miles away, especially when the Albert Hall has no audience to dampen the acoustic.” 

The Proms have been the biggest classical music event since their inception. Photo credit: Domdomegg

While Pickard rightly commented that this year’s female inclusion “is hugely advanced on the figures of even 10 years ago”, this hasn’t always been the case. Though female conductors have historically been excluded, female composers have a long-standing history in the Proms tradition.  

In the first few decades of the festival, the second half of each concert was considered the lighter portion, where women composers often featured. The compositions of Maude Valerie White and Teresa del Riego, for example, were both included more than a hundred times in the programme. But in 1927 when the BBC took over the running of the concerts from music publishers Chappell & Co, they decided to revamp this section, with the intention of making it more weighty. They successfully “banished the shop ballads of the Chappell regime”, as The Times reported in 1927: 

“ The only scope for real improvement was in the second part of the programme, and the opportunity offered has been seized. We need no longer… seek refuge in the vestibule from 'platitunes' about June and little cottages, but can stay to enjoy songs by Schubert or Strauss or Parry.” 

But in doing so, female composers were inadvertently cut from the programme. Since then, the journey to including women has been a long one, and it wasn’t until 1984 that a woman, Odaline de la Martinez, was allowed to conduct an entire Prom. 

The BBC Proms are considered the peak of classical music events in the UK and have been so since their inception in 1895, so the addition of female composers and conductors is no small thing. With 11 of the 21 premieres composed by women this year, as well as 29 female composers featuring in the 84 concerts, the BBC is certainly moving in the right direction. 

Thumbnail image credit: Diego Delso

Read more: 5 female composers you need to listen to

Read more: The female gaze: How women artists redrew the female nude

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