Summary

Abbie Conant was a professional musician, a trombone player, and had applied for openings with eleven orchestras. She received only one reply. The response was from the Munich Philharmonic Orchestra. In their letter they addressed her as “Herr” Conant which should have sent up a red flag.

There were 33 candidates all of whom played behind a screen making them invisible to the selection committee. Even though she made one error, the committee was blown away by her performance. They chose her but were aghast when Herr Conant turned out to be Frau Conant. The music director was from the old school and held that a woman could not play the trombone. There were a few women in the orchestra but they played “feminine” instruments like the violin and the oboe. Yet Conant survived two more tryouts and was hired by...