A Female Conductor Joins the Ranks of Top U.S. Orchestras – The New York Times
Nathalie Stutzmann will be the only woman leading a major American ensemble when she takes the Atlanta Symphony’s podium next year.
The 25 largest orchestras in the United States have something in common: Not one is led by a woman.
But that is about to change. The Atlanta Symphony Orchestra announced on Wednesday that it had chosen Nathalie Stutzmann, a conductor and singer from France, as its next music director.
Stutzmann, 56, will be only the second woman in history to lead a top-tier American orchestra when she takes the podium in Atlanta next year. She follows Marin Alsop, whose tenure as music director of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra ended in August after 14 years.
Stutzmann said she hoped her selection would inspire other orchestras to appoint women.
“I’m not looking for a world dominated by women,” she said in a video call. “I’m just looking for equality — that we will one day not be considered as a minority, but as musicians, conductors and maestros.”