ANTONIA BRICCO
From my early memories, I recall the affection-the connection that music inspired from my surface to my center. As a voice with a deep and inspiring message, it spoke to me in cascades and crescendos.
A conductor of symphony orchestras. That would someday be my title. From the moment I knew such a title existed, I knew it would someday be mine.
It was my future. As one does not question the wrinkles or the wisdom that arrive with time, I did not questign or doubt what I knew to be my destiny.
I was meant to be a conductor as surely as I was meant to be a woman.
Berlin welcomed me-nurtured me-and allowed me, in the shadow of the Bavarian countryside that I so adored, to achieve expertise in my skill and my craft.
The demonstration of my abilities would involve performing to the world, and performing well. Well enough to command accolades and praise, respect and awe.
It all arrived-in abundance, to my own extreme delight, if not surprise. Kudos and commendations from Hamburg, Berlin, Warsaw, and San Francisco validated my commitment and, I presumed, insured my future as a conductor.
Indeed this was not so. Most would not bother listening to me or about me. Others could not be impressed enough to permit a woman to act as leader to male musicians, an embarrassment at the very most, a novelty at the least.
New York indulged the novelty, and terrific support arose for my talent. Yet my presence was still not palatable as a permanent proposition. The threat of a silenced baritone cemented my departure.
So I fled to Denver. They, disappointed to lose Enesco, Me grateful for the stage. With an extreme local triumph, I again felt sure of my future, and I was again reminded, a woman can not be a permanent conductor for a respectable orchestra.
But I knew this was a mind set and not a reality. Music was not discriminating of such trivialities.
I remained in Denver and sustained my hope. As it so often does, the ideal solution revealed itself. .. an all female orchestra.
A new road, paved by its very conception.