But the professional opportunities for women in symphony orchestras have not been given equal attention, although women have been deeply involed creatively and recreatively since the beginnings of concert music. The importance of women composers is a fact that has been demonstrated in numerous recent articles in leading newspapers and in magazine articles, including "Every Good Boy (composer) Does Fine," by Nancy Van de Vate in the January 1974 Symphony News -- and article that led to the formation of The League of Women Composers. Still, the professional woman in the symphony orchestra field -- the player, the conductor, the manager -- is a subject that begs for further attention.

The role of women in symphony orchestra music can be traced from the seventeenth century, when the orphan girls of the Conservatorio dell' Ospedale Pietà played an important part in the musical life of eighteenth century Venice. Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians tells us that the four Venetian orphanages "rivalled one another in concerts which attracted connoisseurs from all over Europe ..." Under the direction of Antonio Vivaldi, the Pietà reach the height of its fame.

In contrast to these orphanage orchestras has been the scarcity of women until recently in our major professional symphonic ensembles, not only in America but throughout the world. John H. Mueller in The American Symmphony Orchestra recounts the fact that "although women have been prominent as vocal and instrumental soloists, and though many all-women orchestras performed successfully, there was some resistance to mingling the sexes in the porfessional orchestras," and quoted an editor who wrote in 1895 of the woman orchestral player: "She cannot endure the strain of competition with men." Sir Henry Wood, conductor of the London Queen's Hall Orchestra, is mentioned by Mueller as claiming to be the first conductor to admit women into a professional orchestra, in 1913. According to Mueller, it was a matter of public comment when The Cleveland Orchestra included four women in 1923. During World War II, when the pressure to engage women must have increased dramatically, there were still ten major American orchestras with fewer than ten women players, and only one with more than twenty-five. Mueller pointed out that women had always been acceptable in, perhaps even the backbone of, amateur and semi-professional orchestras in this country.

Since then, the question of participation of women in professional American orchestras has markedly improved. Today, more than sixty women in the major orchestras are principals or co-principals. Many women section heads play strings, flute, harp, or keyboard instruments, but there are exceptions: Sara Watkins, principal oboist of the National Symphony Orchestra; Elaine Douvas, principal trumpet with the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra. In the metropolitan orchestra category, the number of women principals increases, and there are a number of concertmasters. A sampling of thirty-two community urban and orchestras, randomly selected, show that there are thirteen concertmasters, four assistant concertmasters, and fifty-nine section heads.

In the majors, during the 1964-65 season, the percentage of all women players ranged from zero to 38.1. The average number of women players was 18.3 percent. Ten years later, the range of players was from 5.6 to 44.2 percent, and the average was 21.8 percent. In half of the majors, over the ten-year period, more than twenty percent of the players were women. The latest figures just received, covering the 1974-75 concert season, show an average of 24.9 percent women in the major orchestras. This represents a dramatic 36 percent increase since 1964-65.

The percentage of women players in metropolitan orchestras averaged 36.5 in 1964-65 and increased to 39.7 in 1973-4. In 1974-75, the percentage of women in metropolitan orchestras as 40.6. Accurate statistics are not available on the number of women in the urban and community orchestras during the 1964-74 period. A sampling of these orchestras in the years 1973-74 shows that 42.4 percent of the players were women.

Orchestras in small communities usually play a limited number of concerts and draw their players from local areas. Rehearsals wre held in the evenings or on weekends, and musicians are either not paid or paid on a "per-service" basis. As the size of the community grows larger, the number of concerts tends to increase and the budgets increase with them. Only in the larger metropolitan orchestras and in the major orchestras is it possible to earn an adequate salary over the course of the year from playing in a symphony orchestra. (Eleven U.S. orchestras now pay all of their musicians on a fifty-two-week basis.) Usually, orchestras salaries must be combined with teaching or other professional reponsibilities, or be considered part-time work. Orchestras with the highest budgets, longest seasons, and most generous salaries tend to have the fewest women musicians. Whether this is a natural reflection of the kinds of work being sought by women or a factor of the women's movement not having influenced long-standing employment patterns cannot be determined without further study. A suit charging discrimination in promotion and pay practices, brought by a woman in the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra, was recently decided in favor of the Symphony.

Fully one third of all orchestras now do preliminary auditions behind a screen, and three orchestras -- all with a high percentage of women -- use a screen in the final audition. More and more of the major orchestras are incorporating this practice in their audition procedures.

GROWTH OF WOMEN MUSICIANS IN AMERICAN ORCHESTRAS Major Symphony Orchestras: 1964-1974  Increase from 18.3% to 21.8%.          1975 24.9% of the musicians were women.          36% increase in number of women          musicians. Metropolitan Symphony Orchestras: 1964-1974  Increase from 36.5% to 39.7%.          1975 40.6% of the musicians were women.          9% increase in number of women          musicians. Urban/Community Symphony Orchestras: 1973-1975  42.4% of the musicians were women.

It is only recently that women have come to the fore as conductors of American orchestras. Antonia Brico conducted the National Symphony and one or two others in the 1930's and founded the New York Women's Symphony in 1934, but had not been seen again on major American podiums until 1975, when her cause as a woman conductor was promoted by the film Antonia, Portrait of the Woman. Eve Queler, now conductor of the New York Opera Orchestra, was music director of the Fort Wayne Philharmonic in the 1960's. Beatrice Brown is conductor of the Ridgefield (Connecticut) Symphony. Frances Steiner is conductor of the Compton (California) Symphony. Marjory Henke is conductor of the Tuscarawas County (Ohio) Philharmonic. Jane Stewart is conductor of the Juno (Alaska) Symphony Orchestra, and Caroline Hills is music director of the Livingston (New Jersey) Symphony. Marjory Hillis is conductor of the Chicago Symphony Chorus, resident conductor of the Chicago Civic Orchestra, and music director of the Elgin (Illinois) Symphony Orchestra. Other women conductors active on the American orchestral scene are Joyce Johnson, Judith Somogyi, Sonja Dalgren, Eleanor Weinberger, Maria Tunicka, Helen Quach, and Victoria Bond. Sara Caldwell, who has had tremendous success as artistic director of the Boston Opera Company, has only just begun to accept conducting engagements with major American orchestras. She was scheduled to appear with the New York Philharmonic, the National Symphony, and the Milwaukee Symphony during the 1975-76 season.

Except in the major orchestra category, the percentage of women orchestra managers has risen spectacularly in the last ten years.

During the ten-year period from 1964 to 1974, the number of women managers of mwtropolitan orchestras never fell below 11 percent of the total and was as high as 33 percent. In the urban and community category, the range was from 25 percent to 54 percent. During two recent seasons (1971-72 and 1973-74), more than half of the urban and community orchestra managers were women. At the end of the ten-year period, the number of women managers of metropolitan orhestras had increased 154 percent; a 100 percent increase had occurred in the urban and community orchestra category.

The first woman manager of a major ochestra was Mrs. Anna Miller, who ran the Chicago Symphony Orchestra from 1891 to 1897. Mrs. Lenore Armsby founded the San Francisco Symphony in 1909 and managed it for many years. Mrs. Adelia Prentiss Hughes organized the Cleveland Orchestra in 1918 and ran it from then until the 1930's. Mrs. I. A. Irish managed the Los Angeles Philharmonic in the 1930's and 1940's. Other pioneer women managers of major orchestras were Ruth O. Seufert of the Kansas City Philharmonic, Helen Black of the Denver Symphony, Mrs. Hugh McCreery of the Seattle Symphony, Mrs. Helen Thomposon of the New York Philharmonic, and Cathy French of the New Jersey Symphony.

The history of the American Symphony Orchestra League confirms the importance of women in the symphony orchestra movement.

The League was founded in 1942 at the encouragement of Leta Snow, the Manager of the Kalamazoo (Michigan) Symphony Orchestra. During the period of the League's development into one of the nation's leading service organizations in the arts, it was directed by Mrs. Helen M. Thompson, who left her post as manager of the Charleston (West Virginia) Synphony Orchestra in 1950 to become the League's executive secretary. In 1970 Mrs. Thompson resigned as executive vice-president of the League to become manager of the New York Philharmonic. Cathy French, assistant director of the League, is now the highest rankng woman on the League staff. Women presently constitute 37 percent of the membership of the League Board of Directors.