If the sublime Tar left you wanting to know more about life as a woman conductor in the male-dominated world of classical music, we have excellent news: a new documentary about renowned Australian conductor Simone Young does just that. Executive produced by Cate Blanchett and directed by Janine Hosking,Knowing the Score is in cinemas now, before it arrives on ABC iView on March 21.
Simone Young is a legendary figure in classical music, a supremely accomplished orchestral conductor who currently serves as the chief conductor of the Sydney Symphony Orchestra. Hosking’s film follows her from her childhood in the Sydney suburb of Manly as the daughter of immigrant parents, through her studies at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music and into a splendid career that saw her conduct at the Cologne Opera, Berlin State Opera, Norway’s Bergen Philharmonic, the Vienna State Opera, and more.
Yet, as the film shows, Young has long railed against being pigeonholed as merely a “female” conductor, but the meteoric course of her career ironically saw her being lauded for setting many firsts for her gender, including being the first woman to conduct both the Vienna State Opera and the Vienna Philharmonic. It speaks to the institutionalised misogyny of the classical music world that few woman conductors ever had even the opportunity to reach the heights that Young has in her profession.
So, Knowing the Score isn’t just a standard music biography—it’s a potted history of how gender dynamics have changed (and in far too many cases failed to change)—over the course of the last 40-odd years. But it’s also a celebration of an extraordinary artist who made it to the podium by wielding her wit, determination, sense of humour, and baton. Perhaps make it a double feature; time spent with Simone young is certainly a palate cleanser after a few hours with Lydia Tár.
