Marin Alsop, the first woman to lead a major American orchestra, never wants to talk about being a woman conductor again. “I think I speak for everyone I know when I say that one more question about being a woman conductor and I’m going to be ill,” she tells me. Another one she’s tired of is about how it feels to be the first woman to get a particular gig. When Alsop broke that barrier at the Last Night of the BBC Proms in 2013, she famously said she was shocked that there can still be firsts for women. Eight years on, we keep celebrating firsts for women conductors. A new generation is planning to change that.
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