More women filling instrument roles traditionally held by men

ABC NEWS (Australia)

Tuba players in orchestra's around the world are usually men, but that's starting to change. The Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra has appointed a woman to its principal tuba position for the first time.  And the orchestra says it's starting to see more women auditioning for instrument positions traditionally held by men.

Transcript

00:00Weighing in at more than 10 kilos, the tuba is the largest member of the brass family.

00:13When Rachel Kelly was asked to choose an instrument to learn in grade 5, the tuba wasn't her first

00:19choice.

00:20She was initially drawn to the flute or clarinet.

00:23I'd seen all the other girls play the flute in the school band and stuff, so I thought

00:27that seemed like a reasonable choice.

00:30Couldn't make any sounds on those instruments when I came down to it, and apparently made

00:34a really good sound on the tuba, so that's where I ended up.

00:43The 25-year-old Queenslander has been appointed the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra's principal

00:48tuba player.

00:50She was chosen through a blind audition process to weed out any bias.

00:54A candidate will enter the room, they won't be wearing shoes, so the panel won't necessarily

00:59know anything about them other than the sound that they hear, so there they're listening

01:03for their intonation and their musicality and the personality that they bring to the

01:08music.

01:09The TSO's principal tuba role has never been held by a woman, until now.

01:14A study of orchestras worldwide found 90% of tuba players are male, and 83% of principal

01:21musician positions are held by men.

01:23But that's slowly changing.

01:26It's much more common now to see women auditioning for low brass and for double bass, or timpani.

01:32Those sorts of positions have typically been occupied by men because they require a lot

01:37of physicality, so I think it's been a very gradual process, but it's that whole thing,

01:41if you can't be what you can't see.

01:43I think that there's a lot of ideas out there, like super old-fashioned ideas from years

01:48gone by of people, you know, it's not very ladylike, or they think there's a lot of

01:54strength or something that you need to play the instrument that maybe women don't have

01:58or something like that, but it's just so far from being true.

02:01Breaking down stereotypes, one note at a time.

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