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FLUTIST
Doriot Anthony Dwyer
(1922 -- )
First woman to win a principal chair in a major U.S. orchestra
Principal Flute: Boston Symphony Orchestra (1952 -- 1990)
1922 -- 1939: FLUTISTS With ATTITUDE
1920 Prices
Born in Streator, IL, Doriot inherited her name from her maternal grandmother, Emily Doriot. Her mother, Edith Anthony, played flute in the Chicago Women’s Symphony and toured for several seasons on the Chautauqua Redpath circuit. Marriage and four children ended that. [1]
Doriot later described her as prodigiously talented, with a powerful tone and a fluid technique. [1] ”My mother was a great artist. She used the instrument to sing, and she had a huge, beautiful sound.“ [4]
At age 8 she began flute studies with her mother and listened to orchestras and operas on the radio with her three siblings. Inspired by principal flute Ernest Liegl in aChicago Symphony broadcast, Doriot vowed to become an orchestral flutist, a dream her mother encouraged.
Doriot's father disapproved of his cousin, Susan B. Anthony, but her mother admired the famous Suffragist and told Doriot to ”never, never put yourself down because you are a female." [1] Precociously talented at age 12, Doriot in 1934 began studying with the flutist who had inspired her, Ernest Liegl. Rising at dawn for a 4-hour train ride to Chicago and a 1-hour elevated train ride to Liegl’s house, she studied with him twice each month for five years. [1]
Bread: .09/loaf Milk: .55/gallon
Car: $305 Gas: .25/gallon
Average Income: $1,155/year
President: Warren G. Harding
Constitutional amendments gave women the right to vote, and Prohibition bannedthe sale of alcoholic beverages.
New Classical Music: Miraculous Mandarin, Bartok; La Valse, Ravel; Pulchinella, Stravinsky
In 1921 Mary Garden was the 1st woman to conduct a major opera company: Chicago Opera Company
Top Books: Ulysses, James Joyce; The Age of Innocence, Edith Wharton; Women in Love, D. H. Lawrence
1939 -- 1943: College and a Dose of Reality
Liegl recommended further study, but he had little reason to expect that she would ever win an orchestral position. In 1939 major orchestras were mostly closed to women other than harpists. [4] Doriot applied to the Curtis Institute of Music, but she was rejected. [1]
That summer at the Interlochen Music Camp, Howard Hanson, director of the Eastman School of Music, offered her a scholarship. At Eastman she got a preview of the music world. For four years, she auditioned to play principal flute in the school orchestra. She never won. She did, however, develop sufficient skills to win the 2nd flute job with the National Symphony in Washington. [1]
1943 – 1946: Washington, New York and Frank Sinatra
In 1943 WW II was raging, and conductors were happy to hire women to fill positions vacated by men. Some were forced out when the men returned from the war, but National Symphony conductor Hans Kindler felt differently. ”The women had proved themselves not only fully equal to the men,“ he said, ”but sometimes more imaginative ... and cooperative.“ [1]
During her two years with the National, she studied with the principal flute of the Philadelphia Orchestra, William Kincaid, then considered one of the best flute teachers in the United States.
Seeking better opportunities, she moved to New York in 1945. While awaiting a union permit to allow her to freelance, she asked Julius Baker, principal flute of the CBS Radio Orchestra, for a lesson. He declined but gave her a pass to the CBS studio to hear rehearsals and concert broadcasts, a fine learning experience. ”They practiced and [rehearsed] and I [saw it] for a whole year.“ [1]
She also played in the Paramount Theatre jazz band that accompanied Frank Sinatra. The pay was good, the level of musicianship was high, the flute parts interesting. ”Sinatra was really an artist,“ she said. ”Very good jazz singers are true artists: they never do the same thing twice.“ [1]
In 1946, she played principal flute in an orchestra for a touring ballet troupe. It was gratifying artistically, but the unprofitable tour folded in Dallas. Still seeking better opportunities, she took a train to Los Angeles.
1946-52: The Hollywood Bowl & Bruno Walter
After WW II: Big changes
Six months later she was playing lucrative jobs in recording studios, primarily because she was a fine sight-reader, a skill she credited to her experience playing new music at Eastman.
She auditioned for 2nd flute in the LA Philharmonic and won, a position she held from 1946 until 1952. She studied orchestral excerpts with principal oboist, Henri de Busscher. A big break came when conductor Bruno Walter named her principal flute of the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra, a challenging job with a concert almost every night of a 13-week season. [4]
Walter next chose her to play principal flute in a radio orchestra similar to the NBC Symphony. The repertoire was difficult, the schedule demanding, but these jobs gave her the experience in a principal flute position she desperately needed.
Although she had graduated from Eastman, she later said: ”I considered those years in Los Angeles my ‘college’.“ She learned how to practice, perform and audition effectively— skills that would soon be crucial. [1]
Big changes arrived after WWII: shifts from production to consumption, from saving to spending, from city to suburb, from an adult to a youth culture. Advertising and the mass media led everyone to believe they could have a house in the suburbs, a new car, a good job for the husband, and well-adjusted children cared for by a full-time wife and mother. [7]
During WW II women had entered the labor force in large numbers. After the war, some believed they had become too independent. Industry and government gave returning (male) soldiers priority in jobs and education.
Women were expected to stay home and care for husbands and children. In the mass media standards of beauty were white, blacks were almost nonexistent, as were working moms, homosexuals and other minorities. [7]
The Betty Crocker Cookbook was a best-seller. The Quiet Man (1952) glorified the ”joys of marriage“ as he-man John Wayne convinced Maureen O’Hara to marry him. [8]
1952: A Big Audition for a Big Job
Sexual Politics and Mixed Messages
Until the mid-1960s orchestral jobs were rarely publicized, and many within a section were filled by pupils of the principal player. [2] But in 1952 the Boston Symphony Orchestra announced auditions to replace retiring principal flutist George Laurent.
To avoid any confusion about her gender Doriot signed her application ”Miss“ Doriot Anthony. At that time applicants typically consisted of [male] musicians invited by the conductor, but Charles Munch decided to hold a ”ladies day“ audition. Doriot described her invitation to audition as ”the greatest thrill of my life!“ [1]
She went into heavy training for two months. Here was her chance to win the job she most coveted, principal flute in a major orchestra, and she wanted to give it her best effort. She often practiced late into the night, selected her own audition music and practiced it from memory. [1]
The audition ran more than three hours. Pops conductor Arthur Fiedler asked for the flute solo from Grieg's Piano Concerto. She played it from memory. After a while, she played everything from memory.
Suburbia was filled with women and children until dad got home from work. Men were the breadwinners, pressured to achieve economic success. Although teachers and parents pushed girls to excel in school and pursue careers, the mass media showed images of housewives and issued stern warnings about careerism. [7]
Juvenile delinquency was a big preoccupation, viewed as evidence of the family breakdown. Rebellious teenstuned out parents and tuned in to peers and the media. Middle-class white girls were drawn to black music and rebellious movie stars, precisely because they were forbidden. [7]
They loved James Dean in Rebel Without a Cause and motorcycle-gang member Marlon Brando in The Wild Ones.
Leonard Bernstein's West Side Story (1957), an updated Romeo and Juliet tale, featured teen lovers in an urban setting: a white girl and her Puerto Rican boyfriend, and gang fights between whites and Hispanics.
"What do you want to hear? I’ll just play it,“ she said to Munch. ”They were knocked out by that,“ she later said. [4]
They asked if she planned to marry and have children. She did, but told them it was none of their business.
When asked if she would come back in two weeks and audition again, she said NO! [4]
Critics labeled Elvis Presley a sex maniac because of his pouty lips, bedroom eyes, and swivel hips. Or maybe because he seemed to be having so much fun! [7]
Parents preferred to have their kids watch American Bandstand hosted by Dick Clark, and they loved Pat Boone, whose advice book to teens, "Twixt Twelve and Twenty," was a 1959 best seller. [9]
Two months later the offer came, but it said nothing about money. Told she would get the usual sum, she asked for more and got it. ”It’s a lot of money for a little girl,“ said the BSO manager.
Doriot firmly replied: "It's a big job." [4]
No Facilities and Dubious Critics
Symphony Hall had no backstage facilities for women. The only other woman in the BSO, a harpist, offered to let Doriot change inside her harp's hard case.
Doriot declined and asked for a proper dressing room. After some discussion, management assigned one of the backstage rooms reserved for soloists to her.
Newspapers reacted to Doriot's appointment with blaring headlines:
”Woman Crashes Boston Symphony: Eyebrows Lifted as Miss Anthony sat at Famous Flutist’s Desk“ Boston Globe, 10/12/1952
”Flutist, 30 and Pretty, Here with Boston Symphony“
Springfield Morning Union, 10/10/1952. [4] At right: Doriot and a BSO colleague
Some offered fashion criticism. One critic noted that she dressed unobtrusively in a long sleeved, floor length black dress. Another said she ”dressed well without aiming at spectacular effect, and her lipstick, though generously applied, is the right shade for her coloring.“ Boston Globe 10/12/1952
Reflections on critics and colleagues
Family TV, Wars and Rebellions
Doriot later said: ”I encountered more prejudice in the press than I did in the orchestra.“ She had nothing but praise for many of her early BSO colleagues: cellist Samuel Mayes, violist Joseph di Pasquale, French hornist James Stagliano, principal oboe Ralph Gomberg, principal bassoon Sherman Walt. [4]
During her 38 years with the BSO, she won critical acclaim for performances under famed BSO conductors as Charles Munch, Erich Leinsdorf, William Steinberg, Seiji Ozawa, and guest conductors Georg Solti and Pierre Boulez, many of them preserved on recordings.
Many of her students at Boston University, New England Conservatory and the Tanglewood Music Center went on to orchestral careers: Geralyn Coticone (Solo Piccolo, BSO); Marianne Gedigian (Guest Principal Flutist, BSO, Principal Flutist of the Boston Pops); Toshiko Kohno (Principal Flute, National Symphony). [1]
Targeted at housewives, the first daytime soap operas appeared, sponsored by makers of household products. The Guiding Light premiered in 1952. In 1956 Irna Phillips created As the World Turns; the most successful daytime soap ever featured the first illegitimatebaby ever on a soap.[10]At night people watched I Love Lucy, a sitcom starring Lucille Ball and her Cuban-born bandleader husband Desi Arnez. But even when she was pregnant, they slept in twin beds. Father Knows Best featured a wholesome white family: 2 parents, 2 kids. The Honeymooners, starred Jackie Gleason as a working class Brooklyn bus driver.
The civil rights movement began: Martin Luther King, Jr. led efforts to integrate Southern buses and schools; Rosa Parks inspired bus boycotts in Montgomery, AL; teenage black girls integrated Little Rock High School. The Shirrelles, 4 black teens from New Jersey, became rock 'n roll’s first female super-group. Their first hit: I Met Him on a Sunday (1958). In the 1st televised Olympics 1960 black track star Wilma Rudolph won 3 gold medals.
The Korean War (1950 -- 1953) ended in an uneasy truce. Fears of communism and atomic bombs led to air raid drills and students hiding under desks. But by 1960, 60% of Americans owned their own home; 75% owned a car; 87% owned a TV. [7]
1963: The BSO Chamber Players
In 1963 the BSO established the BSO Chamber Players, principal players of the string, woodwind, brass, and percussion sections. Doriot was the only woman. The Chamber Players concertized in Boston, New York City and at Tanglewood, toured the U.S. and abroad, and recorded for Nonesuch and Deutsche Gramophone. [3]
At Rt: BSO Chamber players in 1985; Doriot remained the lone woman.
BLIND AUDITIONS
In the 1960s, pressure from civil rights groups forced orchestras to more equitable auditions. By 1976, a third of the major U.S. orchestras used blind auditions for preliminary rounds; musicians played behind a black curtain to hide their gender and/or ethnicity. This greatly increased the number of women and minorities hired, although a screen was often not used for the final round. In 1998, 47 of the biggest U.S. orchestras used blind auditions for preliminary rounds.
In 1977 the BSO named Marylou Speaker [Churchill] principal second-violin. That year 11 women held positions in the BSO—string players, and harp and flute—but none held positions in the brass or percussion sections. In 1969, harpist Ann Hobson Pilot wasthe first African-American hired by the orchestra. In 1980 she was named principal harp. [2]
During the late 1980s Doriot toyed with the idea of retiring, but, reflecting upon her teacher William Kincaid, she said: ”He did a lot more listening than most flutists. [The Philadelphia Orchestra wind section] all admired each other. And that’s one thing we did at the Boston Symphony.... I fell in love with our [woodwind] quartet ... that’s why I couldn’t leave the Symphony.“ [1]
Pictured at right:
Doriot and three other principals of the BSO woodwind section in 1985.
1990Retirement
When she did retire, she went out in style. The BSO commissioned Ellen Taafe Zwilich to compose a Concerto for Flute and Orchestra for her, which she premiered in April, 1990. The caption below a photo of her in the Boston Globe said: ”Doriot Anthony Dwyer, a living legend of flute playing.“ [4]
”I love the piece,“ she said, ”every note counts, and there are a lot of notes!“ When asked how she maintained such high standards for so long, she said: ”Music is like a fountain flowing with new challenges every day. That’s the reason I have never been bored.“ [4]
After leaving the BSO, she played recitals and recorded chamber music for Koch Records. In 1994 in a recital at Boston’s Gardner Museum, she and pianist Anthony di Bonaventura performed a piece composed for them by Charles Fussell. [6]
During her years with the BSO, Doriot Anthony Dwyer married, had a daughter and later divorced. She now lives in the Boston area.
Legacy: At a time when women were almost non-existent in most U.S. orchestras, Doriot Anthony Dwyer worked tirelessly to achieve her goals. Because of her prodigious talent, steely determination and tireless effort, she became one of the top orchestral flutists in the world, as demonstrated by her recordings with the BSO, the BSO Chamber Players, and in solo recitals.
Role models, mentors, influences: Her most important role model was her mother, Edith Anthony. Her teachers included many greats of the flute world: William Kincaid, Ernest Liegle, Georges Barriere, and Georges Laurent, her predecessor in the BSO. Another influential teacher was oboist, Henri de Busscher. [4] She also studied ballet and voice, and often discussed phrasing with the great black tenor recitalist Roland Hayes. Conductors Bruno Walter and Charles Munch recognized her talent and defied convention to hire her as principal flute.
Gender issues: In1991 she spoke at Boston University forum in response to remarks trumpet professor Rolf Smedvig had made about a female student brass group. ”In opera,“ Doriot said, ”women always had prominent roles; nobody ever said [they] sang well ‘for a woman.’ A woman can sing as loud as any man. Never have I heard a conductor urge a male instrumentalist to play in a ‘more feminine’ way. [If someone told] them to play more like a woman, it would be considered a putdown. But I have certainly heard women being told to play more like a man.“ She contradicted Smedvig’s assertion that women don’t have the stamina to play heavy brass. ”a soprano singing a major operatic role needs more stamina than any instrumentalist.“ [5]
DISCOGRAPHY
DoriotAnthony Dwyer played on most of the BSO recordings made between 1952 and 1990. Listed here are a few examples of her many recordings with the BSO and chamber groups.
