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An Interview with
Christine Ammer
 Amadeus Press: Can you pinpoint certain stories or experiences of women in music that caused you to see the lack of adequate support and opportunity? Christine: The original impetus for Unsung came in the mid-1970s. I was asked to introduce an all-women's wind quintet, and when I went to the library to look up some background on women wind players, I found absolutely nothing. Also, my children were in school orchestras and bands, which included many girls, and I realized that professional symphony orchestras, chamber groups, and soloists consisted almost entirely of men. So I wondered what had happened to all the girls in school ensembles. And why were all the works I heard in concert, records, and on radio composed by men? AP: Could you describe your research process for Unsung? C: The research process for the first edition was long and laborious. I went through all the journals, newspaper reviews, and programs I could find from the 1790s to the present, mainly in the Boston and New York public libraries. None of the material was indexed or computerized, so it took many months to read it all. When I found particularly interesting women, such as Sophia Hewitt (organist for the Handel and Haydn Society in the early 1800s), I tracked down municipal records and the like. For this second, greatly expanded edition, the clipping files I'd kept over the years, the Internet, and personal interviews with living artists such as composer Joan Tower, made the process much less time-consuming but nonetheless fascinating. AP: What do you see as the most recent positive changes regarding women in music? And what areas are still trailing behind? C: Three women composers now have won the Pulitzer (Shulamit Ran and Melinda Wagner in addition to Ellen Taaffe Zwilich). Three women violinists became the first to win the big Avery Fisher Prize (not just the career grants). Conductor JoAnn Falletta became the first to conduct a major orchestra, the Buffalo Symphony. The personnel of major American orchestras is now 25 to 35 percent women, and there are many all- or part-women's chamber ensembles, string quartets, etc. But, the numbers are still small-three out of a hundred prizewinners; one out of two dozen...conductors; one-fourth to one-third women players when conservatories graduate a majority of women. Further, in some fields such as music education, women still are consigned to the lower ranks, such as untenured or adjunct professors in colleges and conservatories. Women brass players have a particularly hard time winning acceptance; very few have made it into the big time, and it is not for want of talent or ability. Prejudice lingers, and for those women who have gotten a foot in the door, there is often a glass ceiling. So, that is the rationale for the title of my book, Unsung. It's less true than it was, but much progress needs to be made before the title and the situation it describes are obsolete. AP: In your opinion, what woman has made the most significant impact as a composer? C: Singling out one composer-and I'm sticking to Americans during the past 200 years-that's difficult. In the 19th and early 20th century Amy Beach probably had the most influence. After that, it's almost impossible to say. Ellen Taaffe Zwilich, the first woman to win the Pulitzer Prize, attracted a lot of attention. Thea Musgrave, the first woman whose operas were performed in major houses, has been influential. But today there are hundreds of others, and only hindsight will tell us who had the greatest impact. AP: In Unsung you document women from all musical categories. Which do you most enjoy? C: There isn't a category I don't enjoy as a listener. I particularly like chamber music, vocal music (including opera and choral music), solo instrumental music...it's impossible to choose. As a performer, [I enjoy playing] choral music and vocal chamber music. AP: When and how did music first enter your life? C: As a very young child in Vienna, my mother taught me arias from The Magic Flute, Schubert songs, and the like. When we came to America, at age seven I joined the junior choir at our Congregational Church. The choir director had, years earlier, been associated with D'Oyly Carte in London and taught us Gilbert and Sullivan songs as well as church music.
An author biography is also available.
Books by
Christine Ammer:
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