SHARING CONCERNS

BILL NEWMAN talks to British clarinettist
EMMA JOHNSON

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What do you think about sex entering the classical music business - Vanessa Mae in a bikini playing her violin in the sea, Lesley Garrett photographed earlier practically in the nude, with her popular TV show? Is this harmful as such, or getting a wider proportion of people interested? 'Wider, I think. Good luck to everybody!' I notice the change in your hair style; is this something else being a woman you have to be conscious of? Men can get away with it. 'Yes, it is unfair, I sometimes think, that people will judge you so much on your appearance. It's part of being a woman, and any woman will tell you that. Whatever sphere of work, it's still not totally equal between women and men. I think there's still a long way to go. Take music, its completely male dominated apart from singers - there's quite a lot of female divas.' And some fine female conductors. 'Including me, actually. It's quite recent. Sometimes I direct concertos from the clarinet with orchestra, and last year I was asked to conduct a whole concert in the Chichester Festival - with baton, but in the Concerto, without'. Do you feel comfortable with a stick in the hand? 'Yes, I think it makes it clearer, and I really enjoy doing that'. Great! You're one of the dual-role merchants. 'Yes, I am another one of them'. This is very important. You know your repertoire and you play it well and know how it should sound, now you can re-communicate with the orchestra in other repertoire. Some of these guys who have just won a competition go up in front of an orchestra thinking they can control them from the word go, haven't any knowledge of repertoire. Being an instrumentalist you have considerable coverage of the classical literature. 'Yes, I've given a lot of concerts, even in a slightly different sphere, and I've thought about composers for a long time with ideas of how to shape music, so it's definitely relevant'. In the near future I am looking forward to her recordings of Goodman jazz transcriptions and new conducting assignments along with my warmest good wishes for concerts in England, France, Spain and America. 'Hopefully, more of the same. Music will always be part of my life'.