The Conductor Review – Captivating, Interesting and Entertaining

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Category: Indies, Docs, Foreign Film

Published on Tuesday, 22 June 2021 11:59

Written by Janet Walker

The Conductor, screened at the Tribeca Festival, presents the life and times of Marin Alsop, the first female symphony conductor for Lincoln Center, and her dedicated effort to break the glass ceiling of male dominated profession.

The uplifting documentary begins with Marin Alsop conducting and immediately we are introduced to the seed event, the definitive moment, that she knew conducting an orchestra was her goal, profession, passion, life’s pursuit.

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Born into a musical family, her father a violinist, her mother a cellist, and they, as soon as she began walking, she was seated at the piano and to hear her describe it, she was miserable. She hated the piano. However, as her parents were musicians, it was impossible that their only daughter would not have the talent or inclination to play, something.

Facing years of rejection, as she describes it is likened to having the artist/instructor destroy the young talent, in order to be rebuilt in the image of the artist, she faced these types of instructors who began to little by little destroy her self-image and her belief in herself. After some time, she had had enough of Julliard and the destroy to rebuild philosophy and set out once again to forge her own path.

Deciding that possibly she could perform a different genre of music, she called about twelve of her girlfriends and they formed String Fever, a female swing band. After about six months they had about eleven minutes of music ready and began to play publicly.

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This led to private gigs. Her band was contracted to play at the wedding for Tomio Taki, a Fashion Financier and Businessman, and following a rejection from the coveted Juilliard conductor program she decided to build her own platform. So, she approached Mr. Taki, and she asked him to support her desire to build her own orchestra.

The documentary also takes the viewer into her home life, we meet her partner, who explains, life with a driven international celebrity is, at times, a real challenge. The ideal of a joint partnership, raising a child, giving each other time, is absent when one half of the relationship is chasing her dream around the world to international symphonies, as wonderful as those accomplishment are they seemed to have weighed on her partner.

Marin Alsop walks the viewer through the arduous, tumultuous, journey to acceptance. Each moment of her success was met with challenges form the old boys club, who were unapologetic with their continual criticism of her as a conductor simply due to her gender.

In this exhilarating documentary, provides insight into her protégée relationship with eminent conductor Leonard Bernstein’s and she reveals how she smashed the glass ceiling to become an internationally renowned conductor.

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The Conductor, tells her important story and highlights her dedicated effort to become the first female symphony conductor for Lincoln Center. Her insight and intelligence into gender roles and gender stereotypes, is presented throughout. The hardships, repeated rejections, which resulted in lengthy delays in her achievement of her goals, can be clearly seen as a general tactic to stop the intrusion of females into formerly male dominated roles.

The Conductor presents the world of classical music with its the last vestige of male control, and while it appears she has broken through the barriers, we understand she is the only woman conducting a major American symphony orchestra.

A captivating story, The Conductor is engaging and entertaining, with insights into the highly competitive world of conducting and in reality, the world of Fine Arts and artistic expression.

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Country: USA.

Year: 2021.

Language: English.

Runtime: 91 minutes.

Director: Bernadette Wegenstein.

Writing: Stefan Fauland, Bernadette Wegenstein.

Producer: Annette Porter.

Cast: Marin Alsop, Leonard Bernstein (in clips), Tomio Taki.