In Saturday’s (1/10) WUSF (Tampa, Florida), Susan Giles Wantuck interviews Chelsea Gallo, resident conductor at the Florida Orchestra, based in St. Petersburg. Gallo: Last season, [I] completed my third season with them, and every year has been amazing. I was just talking to our music director, Michael Francis, the other day, saying how coveted these positions are—how few conducting positions are actually for top orchestras in the country, and then to end up at an orchestra in a beautiful place with incredible musicians, a thriving trajectory…. Everyone expected [the orchestra field] to be a little bit better [for women conductors] by now. There are some conductors like Marin Alsop, Simone Young, JoAnn Falletta, Diane Wittry, who really laid a great foundation. The League of American Orchestras did a study that over 50% of our conducting degree recipients in the country are women. But we are seeing this hard cut off when it comes to professional orchestras, especially our top-level orchestras … Of those top 25 orchestras in the country, one of them is led by a woman, Natalie Stutzman of the Atlanta Symphony…. I just did a production of ‘Carmen’ with the Dayton Opera, Dayton Philharmonic and Dayton Ballet. And we [had] holiday shows here. In the new year, I’ll conduct Knoxville Symphony, New Mexico Philharmonic.”
