We’re proud to be a female-majority team at the BSO, where women represent 71% of our senior management team and 64% of trustees. We caught up with Carol Paige [Section Principal Second Violin] and Chloé Van Soeterstède [Principal Guest Conductor] to learn more about the women that have inspired them, and what it means to play a leading part today…

 

Tell us about the women in music that inspire you?

Carol: After hearing last week’s stunning Beethoven I simply must include Clara-Jumi Kang on this list! What stunning playing – such exquisite musicianship and unlike anything I’ve heard – what an inspiration. I would also have to include Nicola Benedetti on this list – not only for her wonderful playing but also for the time and energy she gives to education – she is really inspiring to so many youngsters all over the UK.

Chloé: Some are composers, some are conductors, others are soloists and orchestral musicians. I love the writing of Jessie Montgomery whom I try to often programme as I feel connected to the textures and colours she uses. I could also name Anna Clyne, Roxana Panufnik and, many hundreds of years before, Fanny Mendelssohn. For conductors, I will forever be grateful and inspired by Marin Alsop and the path she created for the younger generation. I admire the career and musicality of Karina Canellakis, mum of two young children too, like me.

On the soloist side, Alena Baeva is a huge inspiration: modest, she plays everything with style and forgets herself completely while playing. She is a good friend and we share a lot about pieces of music we will be performing but also about motherhood. One orchestral musician that first comes to mind is Clara Andrada della Calle, Principal Flute of Frankfurt Radio Symphony and COE. I have never played with her and yet, each time I listen and watch her, I can see she serves the music fully. This is, to me, so inspiring and exactly as I see our purpose to what we do.

Principal Guest Conductor Chloé Van Soeterstède (c)Olivia Da Costa


What is a little-known fact about a pioneering woman in your field?

Chloé: Fanny Mendelssohn had secretly published several works under Felix Mendelssohn’s name, so when Felix visited Queen Victoria who loved the song he presented to her, she praised him. He admitted though the song was actually his sister’s, Fanny. I would have loved to attend this moment and see how Queen Victoria reacted. Yes, a woman can compose! And well!


What does your role at the BSO mean to you? 

Chloé: I feel grateful and proud to be part of such a great, recognised orchestra and to follow in the footsteps of esteemed conductors, in particular my former mentor Marin Alsop. Having a relationship with an orchestra means I can develop trust with the musicians and our audiences on a long term basis, like a marriage.

Carol: I am so incredibly privileged to be a section principal and of course am aware that my string principal colleagues are currently male.  I feel so lucky to have this role with such a fantastic section alongside me and to be able to play the wonderful music that we play down here to our lovely audience is such a privilege.  I love every minute of it.

Carol Paige leading the Second Violin section at Bristol Beacon (c)Mark Allan

Which historic women would you most like to have coffee with?

Carol: None of them are musicians but I’d love to have coffee with Jane Austen, Mary Anning and Florence Nightingale – all very different and all incredible people.  I’d like to meet Mary Anning down at Chapmans Pool – one of favourite places and I’d want to hear all about her pioneering work into fossils.  Jane Austen I would have to meet near our Summer opera home of The Grange Festival (near Alresford). This is her home turf and it would be so interesting to hear all about her writing and what inspired her. And finally Florence Nightingale I’d want to meet up in London at St Thomas’s – my grandmother was a nurse during the war and it would just be amazing to find out all about how she went about establishing The Nightingale Training School for Nurses.

Chloé: On a musical side, Clara Schumann, who had 8 children! Having two young ones at home, I would ask her advice about how she managed! Otherwise, quite a few others like Simone Veil or Queen Elizabeth II about their times during the Second World War.


Join Chloé and Carol with the Orchestra on 22 April [Poole] and 23 April [Basingstoke]. Visit What’s On for details of all upcoming performances.
To learn more about International Women’s Day, visit their website.