The following year Maazel did grant her tenure, but at the same time assigned her to play primarily second trombone, despite the fact that she won and is tenured to play the Co-Principal chair. She has filed complaints of sexual discrimination and sexual harassment with the Department of Labor and the Equal Opportunity Commission. There is just a handful of women trombonists in major orchestras. This year marks the first season the New York Philharmonic carries a woman trombone player on its roster. Lisa Albrecht, Assistant Principal Trombone, joins Rebecca Bower, Co-Principal Trombone of the Pittsburgh Symphony, and Heather Buchman, Principal Trombone of the San Diego Symphony, as a member of an elite minority.
Academia is no better.
A handful of other women teach at small colleges, most as an adjunct position connected to their orchestral employment. Of course not. There is a tremendous amount of hostility and resentment towards women in our society, and it is magnified in the back rows of the orchestra. The autocratic and hierarchical structure of the symphony orchestra permit, and perhaps even encourage, sexual discrimination and sexual harassment to flourish. All those professional women, just shaken to their cores by this piece.