Some female musicians used to slip off their heels before walking behind a fabric screen to play a so-called "blind audition." They were concerned that the committee on the other side of the screen would hear the "click, click, click" of their shoes and judge her more negatively as a woman.
Created to achieve gender equity in the classical world, the blind audition forces a committee to judge a musician's worth strictly on sound. It is not the only part of the process of winning a post at a major orchestra, but it is a highly prized step — and one that has achieved its aim. In 1920 there was one woman in what is now the Minnesota Orchestra. Today, 47 percent of the 76 rostered musicians are women.
And a carpet now is laid for musicians to walk on, so everyone can keep their heels.
The blind audition has become a conversation piece as the classical music world tries to nudge its image as an old, white, European art form. The hope is to get the orchestral world looking more like America in the 20th century.
Forget the 21st century, that will take another couple of decades.
"I think that's correct," said Jesse Rosen, president of the League of American Orchestras, which made diversity the theme of its just-concluded annual conference in Baltimore. "The things that might be worked on for K-12 students, for example, are not going to be realized for 20 years on the level of the professional orchestras. There is a small window that you can engage, and it's difficult to decide when you're a teenager that you're going to be a classical violinist."
On a certain level, the field is the least diverse by far among the performing arts. The league's 2014 statistical report showed that nearly 86 percent of orchestral musicians are Caucasian of some nationality. Nine percent are Asian and Pacific Islander, 2.5 percent are Latino and 1.8 percent are African-American. American Indians make up 0.1 percent.
Nearly 50 percent are women, however.