cjh@csin.UUCP (Chip Hitchcock) (02/06/84)
I can't speak to chess, since my game is bridge. But I note that for several decades the one person virtually every serious would-be conductor (and a lot of piano players as well) wanted to study with was Nadia Boulanger. She died quite recently, and so far there has been no sign of anyone able to fill her shoes. I have sung for a large number of conductors in the past several years, including women ranging in experience from a retired grade-school music teacher/accompanist to the choral conductor at the New England Conservatory. The faults that I have noticed fall into two linked categories: lack of discrimination over finer points, and not making a slack chorus pay attention and observe those fine points. The former is common to inexperienced conductors of both sexes; the latter might be classed under aggression (,lack of---note the standard portrayal of the furiously bad-tempered conductor), but it should be closer to fine discipline (which statistically one would expect women to excel at---how many men do you know who could survive managing a grade-school classroom?), and closest to an inculcated lack of confidence (three of these women were brought in as possible replacements to conduct an established chorus, and a conductor virtually has to assume that heesh is there because heesh knows more about the music than anyone in front of hem).