SFist Interviews Carolyn Kuan

I don't really think people would think about that. We're going to start with a lion dance. It's going to be such a spectacle, so many things going on. You got the lion dance, you got this ensemble of traditional Chinese instruments, you have a choir of hundred and thirty kids singing, there are so many things going on that I don't think they'll be noticing the conductor much, she giggles.

It's the year of the golden ox. So we thought that we would focus on romance. Wait, what's the relationship between ox and romance? I'm still trying to figure that out, she jokes. Then more seriously: There's a Chinese expression, it sounds like: "talking romance with cows." It does sound like that. If you actually write it out, it's "playing music to cows," neither of them don't make a lot of sense.

Playing music to cows! Some people in the audience might take offense! I'm aware of that, she laughs. I'm not sure I'll mention it. So that's the focus on the love, I suppose. "Romeo and Juliet" comes up, of course, that's the natural choice, it's the most famous love story. It just so happen there's a Chinese Romeo & Juliet, and that's the Butterfly lovers violin concerto.

Who are these Butterfly lovers? The short version is basically: the story is set in 350. Our Chinese version of Juliet, wants to go to school, she's the youngest of seven kids, she wants to go to school like her brothers. but 1659 years ago, [and she actually computed that number on the fly, honest] girls can't go to school. Her father agrees she can go, but only if she disguises herself as a boy. She falls in love with her Romeo in school. Her parents decided that she must marry a rich guy, and of course, the Romeo is not a rich guy, even though he's not poor either. So they weren't able to be together, and basically he kills himself. And on the day of her wedding, she stops the wedding procession to visit the tomb, and the tomb opens and she jumps in. Then the tomb closes and two butterflies comes out, and they're forever together.

But why there are so few women conductors, we insist? Look, I'm who I am, Im female, I am Asian, I am young -- that will change, she laughs. I really don't think about it very much. When people kinda forget, when they stop focusing on whether I'm tall, skinny, fat, short, when they just focus on the music, that's when I'm the happiest.

She's tall and skinny, by the way. And busy, working as a guest conductor for Baltimore, Detroit, here. But does being a woman make it more difficult for her to land a music director gig, after she finishes her run as Associate conductor in Seattle?

When you find out, you should let me know! People are used to what they are used to. Changes are not easy. Ultimately, as a female artist, you continue to do the best work possible, continue to be devoted, to communicate and be engaged. The rest of it, I have very little control over what happen and how people perceive that.

She's been involved with the Cabrillo festival of contemporary music since 2003, down in Santa Cruz. I'm a big fan of contemporary music, she says. And being quite single-minded, we pointed out that, composition too seemed dominated by guys, for some reason. Jennifer Higdon may have the highest profile (her name pops in here semi-regularly), still she's far lesser known than a Philip Glass or John Adams.

What can I say, we do live in a male dominated society. I'm sure it takes time. Maybe in a hundred years, people won't be making these distinctions. There will be just as many female composers as male composers. Certainly it takes time. It's only recent that women are allowed to vote. Women were expected to stay at home and do nothing but take care of the household. Hopefully everything else will come in time. We just had the First black president...

but still no woman president, we interrupt... Still no women, you're right. People joke about it, are we going to see a first female president, or a first music director of the Cleveland orchestra, or Boston symphony. I don't know.

Do people doubt that a woman, as conductor or president, lacks leadership? I have no doubt that a woman has the ability to lead. It's not the question of whether they have the ability, the question is the public acceptance of the person's ability, or whether there's someone else better or that people are more used to...Hopefully, one day, people won't be asking that question.

Stop asking the question? She couldn't mean it as a reproach to us, she was so pleasant, and we only asked seventeen versions of it.