"One pianist's unique approach to concerto programming shows gender equality is possible”

As many in the classical music world struggle to find solutions to achieving gender equality in programming concerts, one soloist has found a way.

Pianist Alexandra Dariescu's commitment to women composers has led her to develop a unique collaborative approach to concerto programming with orchestras, which has achieved gender parity in her performances throughout the 2021/22 and 2022/23 seasons.

This achievement has been made more impressive after a recent study of 100 of the world’s top orchestras’ 2020/21 seasons conducted by the Donne Foundation found that only 5% of the music scheduled in their concerts is composed by women. In addition, a staggering 88% of concerts feature only music written by men. 

“For me, it’s about finding a genuine way to change the mentality we’ve had for hundreds of years,” said Alexandra.

“It’s about inspiring audiences through a long-term collaborative approach with conductors, promoters and orchestras, by pairing mainstream piano concertos written by male composers with their female counterparts in the same concert. In this way, we tell the stories and connections between the composers, while painting a fuller, more relatable and inclusive picture of the times and the various artistic movements. I truly believe we ought to mirror our society in our programming and I take this as a personal responsibility to be able to build bridges and make classical music truly more accessible to our 21st-century audiences”

“Reaching quotas will only tick boxes and help us short term, but will not have a real impact unless we change our culture. It will take years but I am in for the long haul to make a tangible difference to the generations to come.”

This approach has been very successful in Alexandra’s programming of various concerto premieres and as a result, in the 2021/22 season, out of Alexandra’s 30 concerto appearances, 20 have been by women composers.

John Mangum, Executive Director and CEO of the Houston Symphony Orchestra said: “Alexandra’s programming presents an ideal solution for orchestras looking to balance the familiar and the unfamiliar, shining a spotlight on female composers whose work we all should know. For her debut with us in Houston, she paired the U.S. premiere of Nadia Boulanger's Fantaisie with César Franck's Symphonic Variations. All of us in the audience were astonished and delighted to discover this masterpiece by Boulanger, especially in the context Alexandra created by pairing it with the Franck. Her approach is truly refreshing, creating the centrepiece of one of our most interesting and rewarding programmes in recent memory. She stands out as an original voice on the world stage.”

Alexandra has performed concertos by Nadia Boulanger, Germaine Tailleferre, Leokadiya Kashperova, Emily Howard, Iris ter Shiphorst, Florence Price, Clara Schumann and collaborated with orchestras across the world, including the Houston and Detroit Symphony Orchestras, Oslo Philharmonic, Orchestre National de France, Basel Chamber Orchestra, Turku Philharmonic, Lapland Chamber Orchestra, BBC Symphony Orchestra, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, Romanian Radio, Württembergische Philharmonie Reutlingen, to name a few.

James Murphy, Chief Executive, Royal Philharmonic Society observed: 'For too long, we've lived under the misconception that history lacked female composers. It's exciting to see artists like Alexandra excavate treasures by a range of female composers we ought to know better. We're hugely looking forward to hearing the works she's bringing back to the stage where they rightly belong.’

"My dream is that other musicians and orchestras take inspiration from this approach.(Re)discovering and sharing incredible music composed by women who have been forgotten/neglected is vital for creating a fairer world and setting a better example for the generations to come. I truly believe it’s only by uniting our forces we can make a real difference” said Alexandra Dariescu

"Alexandra’s passion for inclusive programming is both inspiring and critically important, now more so than ever.” Jessica​ Ruiz, Senior Director of Artistic Planning Detroit Symphony Orchestra

“We are thrilled to hear of Alexandra's fantastic initiative and results. The Association of British Orchestras fully supports increasing gender equality in the repertoire performed by our members. We have been delighted by the take-up so far, and hope this will be an inspiration to orchestras in other countries.”  Mark Pemberton, Chief Executive of the Association of British Orchestras