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The Biographies of
Abbie Conant and William Osborne
Abbie Conant
Award-winning Performance artist and
Juilliard trained trombonist Abbie Conant is somewhat of a legend in the
international orchestral brass world. The story of her epic fight and
ultimate victory against egregious gender discrimination in the Munich
Philharmonic Orchestra where she won the position for principal trombone
at a screened audition in1980, inspired author Malcolm Gladwell to
write the NY Times Bestseller, Blink where Ms. Conant's story is
detailed in the last chapter. The 11-year-long court battle was
documented by composer/musicologist/activist, William Osborne in an
article entitled, You Sound Like a Ladies Orchestra.
The document is supported by actual court records and experiences in the
orchestra with 89 footnotes. This source document has generated
countless newspaper and magazine articles (Der Spiegel, {the German
analog to Time Magazine}, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal,
St. Louis Post-Dispatch, etc.) as well as a documentary film, ("Abbie
Conant, Alone Among Men" by Brenda Parkerson), a play produced at the
Landestheater Linz, Austria by Award-winning British playwright, Tamssin
Oglesby called, Der (eingebildeter) Frauenfeind, (The [Concieted]
Misogynist) and a screen play for a feature film in the works by
Canadian writer/producer Dale Wolf.
After winning her lengthy court case, Ms. Conant won a
full-tenured Professorship at the University of Music in Trossingen,
Germany and left the orchestra in 1993. Abbie Conant has performed
instrumental music theater works with surround sound electronics
in over
200 cities around the world. She has given masterclasses in many
esteemed music institution such as The Juilliard School, The Eastman
School, New England Conservatory, Yale School of Music, Indiana
University, Royal Northern College of Music, the Academy of Music and
Drama in Gothenburg, Sweden, DePaul, CalArts, McGill, Oberlin and many
others. In collaboration with composer/husband William Osborne, the pair
has created a new genre of chamber music theater. They have produced
five evening-length chamber operas for singing/acting trombonist.
While attending National Music Camp at Interlochen, Michigan in 1970,
she won a scholarship to the famed Interlochen Arts Academy. She
received her B.M. cum laude at Temple University with Dee Stewart of the
Philadelphia Orchestra, then her M.M. at Juilliard with Metropolitan
Orchestra Principal, Per Brevig. In addition, she holds an Artist
Diploma from the Cologne University of Music with Branimir Slokar. At
the suggestion of her teacher Dr. Karl Hinterbichler, she attend
Tanglewood through the Boston University Tanglewood Institute (where she
studied with bass trombonist of the BSO, Gordon Hallberg). She won the
audition for the Colorado Philharmonic (an intensive training
orchestra), Yale Summer Chamber Music Institute at Norfolk where she
studied with John Swallow, and New College Music Festival as Brass Trio
in Residence. The Spoleto Festival dei due Mondi took her to Italy where
she studied contemporary music with Vinko Globokar at the L'Accademia
Chigiana in Siena. From there, she won her first position as principal
trombone of the Royal Opera of Turin, Italy. Her next position was for
principal trombone of the Munich Philharmonic for 13 years where she was
awarded the official honorable title of Kammersolistin der Stadt
Muenchen after 10 years of exemplary musical service to the city of
Munich, Germany.
Ms. Conant has been the subject of several
featured cover articles in various brass publications: International
Trombone Association Journal, British Trombone Journal, The Brass Herald
and others. She has been a guest on NPR's Performance Today as well as
on the West German Radio, SW German Radio, Canadian Broadcast Company,
New York City's classical station, WQXR.
She has played all
types and genres of music, including improvisation, in duo with guitar,
shakuhachi, or harp, early music, contemporary music and film music. She
has had film roles in the feature film, The Devil's Triangle, directed
by Vadim Glowna and in the epic 13 film story of a German composer's
life and times, Die Zweite Heimat, (The Second Homeland) by dir. Edgar
Reitz.
Ms. Conant has students in many different orchestras and
teaching positions including, two former students in the Bayreuth
Festival Orchestra, the Stuttgart State Opera, the Southwest German
Radio Orchestra, The Hamburg Symphony, the Regensburg Symphony, the Los
Angeles Philharmonic, to name a few.
Ms. Conant is also a
published poet and librettist having co-written libretti with William
Osborne's music theater works (one-woman shows) Miriam, Street Scene
for the Last Mad Soprano, Miriam, Cybeline and Aletheia.
Her
critically acclaimed CD Trombone and Organ is on the Audite label and
the DVD, Music for the End of Time, an hour long tone poem for trombone,
video and electronics inspired by six visions of the Revelation of St.
John the Divine, and composed by William Osborne, is available through
Polymnia Press.
William Osborne
William Osborne is a fourth
generation New Mexican. He worked his
way through college at the University of New Mexico and recieved a BA in
1973. He then studied with George Crumb for five years while living in
Philadelphia and New York, and with Franco Donatoni for two in Rome at
the famous L'Academia di Santa Cecilia. He has received two ASCAP
awards, a Doctoral Fellowship to Columbia University, alternate to the
American Rome Prize, and a major prize from the Theater Commission of
the City of Munich for his Beckett productions. He founded The
Wasteland Company in 1984 along with his wife Abbie Conant as the main
performer to explore women's roles in music theater.
Two
doctoral dissertations have been written about William and Abbie's music
theater and multimedia work. Dr. Jesus Fernando Lloret Gonzalez, a
professor at the Conservatorio Superior de Musica de Malaga completed
his dissertation about our music theater and multimedia work in 2012. It
is entitled, Fusion del Teatro Y L'opera a Traves de Los Medios
Audiovisuales: La Trombonista Abbie Conant Y El Compositor William
Osborne." ("The Fusion of Theater and Opera Through Audiovisual
Media In the Work of William Osborne and Abbie Conant.") He was given
the highest distinction, cum laudem, for his work. The degree was
awarded by the Faculty of Cinema and Communications at the University of
Malaga.
And in 2013, Dr. Jessica D. Butler completed her
dissertation about our music theater work and was awarded a Doctorate of
Musical Arts degree by the University of Iowa. Her dissertation is
entitled "The Creative Identity of Women: An Analysis of Feminist
Themes in Select Chamber Music Theater Works by Composer William Osborne
for Trombonist Abbie Conant."
In recent years William and
Abbie have toured to over 165 cities in America and Europe to great
critical acclaim with his compositions. Their European venues have
included the Munich Biennale, The Stuttgarter Tage für Neue Musik, The
Hamburg State Opera, The Bavarian State Opera, The Freiburg Theater
Festival, The State Theater of Kassel, Frankfurt's Theater am Turm,
Munich's Gasteig Cultrual Center, and Nuovo Forme Sonare in Rome. They
have performed and given workshops at most of America's major music
schools including The Juilliard School, The New England Conservatory,
Yale University, The Eastman School of Music, The Peabody Conservatory,
Indiana University, The San Francisco Conservatory, Cal Arts, the
University of California at Berkley, Ithaca College, and the University
of Northern Texas.
He also has written numerous scholarly
articles about women in music, music sociology and
philosophical/theoretical concepts. His article "Sounding the Abyss of
Otherness: Pauline Oliveros' Deep Listening and the Sonic Meditations is
published in Women Making Art (New York: Lang 2000.) His article "You
Sound Like A Ladies' Orchestra: A Case History of Sexism Against Abbie
Conant In the Munich Philharmonic" has won a "Best of the Web"
award and led to a 90 minute documentary film about Abbie's
experiences broadcast nationally on German State Television. The article
was also the basis of the last chapter of Malcolm Gladwell's
book Blink which was on the New York Times Bestseller List for 18 weeks
-- and number one for three. His article "Art is Just An Excuse: Gender
Bias In International Orchestras" was published in the Journal of the
International Alliance for Women In Music, where it initiated
international protests against the Vienna Philharmonic and worldwide
press coverage including reports on NPR, an interview of William on
ABC's Good Morning America, and front page articles on both the New
York Times and the Los Angeles Times. His article "Symphony
Orchestras and Artist-Prophets: Cultural Isomorphism and the Allocation
of Power in Music" was published in Leonardo Music Journal, a joint
venture of the International Society for Art, Science and Technology and
the M.I.T. Press.
In 1998 he was given a Special Recognition
Award by the International Alliance for Women in Music for his services
to women in music. In January 2000 MSNBC published a major article
about his work on their web new site, "Taking On the Vienna
Philharmonic."
Some major interviews and articles
about us.
Dissertation by Dr. Jessica D. Butler, University of
Iowa
"The Creative Identity of Women: An Analysis of Feminist
Themes in Select Chamber Music Theater Works by Composer William Osborne
for Trombonist Abbie Conant."
Dissertation by Dr. Jesus
Fernando Lloret Gonzalez, University of Malaga, Spain
"Fusion del
Teatro Y L'opera a Traveos de Los Medios Audiovisuales: La
Trombonista Abbie Conant Y El Compositor William Osborne." ("The
Fusion of Theater and Opera Through Audiovisual Media In the Work of
William Osborne and Abbie Conant.")
Miriam and Our
Theories of Chamber Music Theater
A discussion of our artistic
techniques and their development by William Osborne.
"Taking
On the Vienna Philharmonic."
About our work for women in music on the
MSNBC News website.
"5 Bizarre Dark Sides of Modern
Orchestras"
A hilarious article in Cracked.com that covers Abbie's
experiences in the Munich Philharmonic. It has had over 700,000 readers
and "Liked" on Facebook over 14,000 times.
Blink by Malcolm
Gladwell
Abbie's experiences in the Munich Philharmonic comprise the
last chapter of the book which was on the New York Times Bestseller List
for 18 weeks -- and number one for three.
Abbie Conant: die
frau, die mit celibidache in den ring stieg
Clarino, Bläsermusik
International 5/2004
Interview in the On-Line Trombone Journal
"William Osborne: Artist and Activist"
An interview in
the IAWM Journal.
"We'll sing from our Hearts" (Auf
Deutsch)
VivaVoce (Summer 2000). (A German language interview of us
together in the Journal of the Internationale Arbeitskries Frau und
Musik)
"Sexism In the Brass Section"
The Wall
Street Journal (July 7, 1993)
"We Need A Man for
SoloTrombone: Abbie Conant's Story"
By Monique Buzzarte, IAWM
Journal (Febraruy 1996)pp. 8-11.
"The Wired Goddess and Her
Trombone" (Auf Deutsch)
Ein Bericht von Theda Weber-Lucks für den
SWR, 15. Dezember 2000
Mark Adamo , "The
Trombonist Who Locked Horns," The Washington Post (March 14, 1994)
"Aus dem Blech gefallen,"Der Spiegel (No. 44, 1991)pp. 89-93.
"Wenn eine Frau die erste Posaune spielt," TAZ-Jouranl zur
Weltfrauenkonferenz Peking. (taz vom Dez. 29, 1994)pp. 66-67.
"Wir Brauchen einen Mann..." Kultur Joker, (May 1995): Title page.
(Lange Interview)
Hannes Hintermeir, "Celi Will keine Frau an
der Posaune," Abend Zeitung, Dienstag, 29. Oktober 1991, Seite 16
Susanne Benda, "Die zärtliche Stärke", Badische Zeitung,
Mittwoch, 24. Mai 1995 .
See also:
"Meine
Enstschieidung zu kämpfen war für mich der erste Gewinn..." Frau und
Musik Nr. 23, 1992)pp4-6.
Hugo Magliocco, "A Special
Endurance" ITA Journal (Vol. 20, No. 2, Spring 1992)pp. 22-28.
James Wierzbicki, "A Piercing Excerpt From 'Miriam'" St. Louis
Post-Dispatch (May 31, 1993) p. 5a.
Richard Dyer, "Trombonist
Conant makes her point loud and clear" The Boston Globe (Febraury 25,
1994)
Performance Today, a 20 minute program about Abbie Conant
broadcast by NPR (March 1994)
Documentary Film : a 90 minute
documentary film produced by 3 SAT and broadcast nationally on German
National Television.
The documentary is available in English on
Youtube:
"Abbie Conant: A Solo Among Men" 1994 (English version)
To order the video in German contact:
"Abbie Conant: Alein
unter Mannern," 1994 (Deutsche Fassung)
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