Noemí Pasquina, the conductor who challenges a world of men

ParisShe wields the baton with equal parts energy and delicacy. With passion and elegance. She always smiles at the musicians. Or perhaps she smiles at the music. When Noemí Pasquina (Cardona, 1987) began her career as a cellist, she never dared to imagine that she would become a conductor. "There were no role models. I had never seen a woman conducting an orchestra," she recalls. But years later, she traded the cello for the baton. This native of Cardona is one of the few female conductors in Catalonia and is fighting to make her mark in a world still dominated by men. Pasquina, who trained in Barcelona, ​​Manresa, Madrid, and The Hague, has so far conducted orchestras in Spain, France, and Romania.

"We will have succeeded when people are no longer surprised to see a woman conducting an orchestra, or when we don't have to say 'woman conductor' but simply 'conductor,'" she points out in a conversation with ARA after participating in the only international competition for women conductors, the Maestra.

Attending a classical music concert by a symphony orchestra with a woman conducting is still a rare sight. Conservatories and orchestras are full of women, but conducting is a very male-dominated field. The glass ceiling is evident. According to a study by the British Donne FoundationOnly 10% of conductors of major orchestras worldwide are women, a percentage that plummets when considering only principal conductors of leading symphony orchestras. Other studies place the percentage in Europe at around 6%.

Catalonia, without female principal conductors

Catalonia reflects this reality. None of the three most important orchestras in our country—the Barcelona Symphony and National Orchestra of Catalonia (OBC), the Gran Teatre del Liceu Symphony Orchestra, and the Vallès Symphony Orchestra (OSV)—have a woman as principal conductor. Nor have they ever had one in the past. However, both the OBC and the OSV currently have female guest, assistant, or associate conductors, such as the Franco-British Stephanie Childress and the Spanish Isabel Rubio. Noemí Pasquina was assistant conductor of the OSV during the 2023-2024 season.

The competition for the Maestra was launched in 2019 by the Frenchwoman Claire Gibault (Mans, 1945), one of the pioneering female conductors. She was the first woman to conduct the La Scala Orchestra in Milan and the musicians of the Berlin Philharmonic. Gibault explains in an interview in Le Monde who decided to hold a competition exclusively for women after a surreal conversation with another conductor during a competition in Mexico where she was a juror and the only woman. "On the first day, he approached me and told me that his doctor, a great scientist, had assured him that women, biologically, could not be orchestra conductors," she told him.

Far from joking, the conductor insisted and explained his blatantly sexist and scientifically unfounded argument: "Women can't hold a baton correctly because their arms are oriented forward. It's perfectly natural, since this is the position for holding children." Gibault, shocked by her colleague's words, decided to support the Maestro. This year, there were sixteen candidates, including Noemí Pasquina, selected from 225 applicants.

Optimism

Pasquina maintains that things are changing and is optimistic. "Before, solo musicians were all men, and now it's not unusual to see a female pianist or violinist as a soloist; there are many. The same thing is happening with orchestral conducting, but we won't see the results for some time," says the conductor from Cardona. Pasquina hopes that she and other female conductors will be the role models she never had: "Now we are building these role models. I'm sure that children will see it as more natural for a woman to conduct an orchestra."