How to Become a Conductor There are more direct routes to a conducting career than through medical school, but challenges abound. Here are a few tips for that budding Toscanini in you. The problem is the way that Beethoven is presented. Though he thinks discrimination exists, Jackson feels the most serious problem for aspiring black music directors is the lack of role models.
Women face a similar problem.
Anne Manson '83, about to embark on her first season as music director of the Kansas City Symphony, is one of only three female conductors of major American orchestras. She is the first woman to have conducted the all-male Vienna Philharmonic, ignoring the scattered giggles that met her at the podium. It is brutal. Two or three rehearsals is the norm for a typical program, says Samuel Wong, but he feels this is a sign of strength. We are just the traveling preachers.