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PAN PIPES • FALL 2016 • sai-national.org 22 very few women as opera conductors. ere are more and more orchestral conductors, but not so much in opera. Eventually Keith [Keith Cerny, General Director and CEO] said he'd love to develop a program where we would invite women that need mentorship, a little bit like what I was doing, and then I could work with them - how do you feel about that? And I thought, you know, I've never thought of myself as a woman conductor. I'm just a conductor. I didn't go into this field to break something, you know like women go in thinking 'I'm going to be the first woman to do it.' I was naïve, perhaps, and now I realize it's true - there really are some barriers. It's good to be strong and to be able to do this job really well on the podium. I was enthusiastic to be a part of the team and to help out. And I have to say, the first season was very successful. I think it's going to help a great deal and I congratulate e Dallas Opera for having the vision to create a program that no other professional institution has." Along those lines, I asked Nicole what she thought were important areas of focus for women considering an opera conducting career, beyond the normal collegiate or university course load. "Well, I think for any conductor the more breadth you have as an individual in terms of knowledge, the more you will bring of who you are to a score. You'll have more to share on the podium in terms of what you're hearing and how you are moving your body. It's so easy nowadays to specialize and be so narrow, narrow, narrow. I struggle with it myself; I keep thinking 'I need more breadth, I need more breadth.' It's so easy to get very specialized. I think people have to put themselves in situations...where you continue to study and you continue to become a better musician. You continue to develop new working relationships and expose yourself to summer programs, expose yourself to any kinds of programs where you can meet people from various artistic fields. I think collaboration is the key to great art-making nowadays. You need to really not only reach out to other musicians but to other artists to try for more collaborative work." Paiement has an extensive résumé, which includes a long list of premieres. As Artistic Director of Opera Parallèle, Paiement has conducted many new productions, including world premieres of Lou Harrison's Young Caesar, Dante De Silva's opera Gesualdo, Prince of Madness (presented as a graphic opera), and the chamber version of John Harbison's e Great Gatsby. With all of the varied and new music available, how does she and her company pick a new work to perform? "at is a great question! ere are so, so many components that come into the selection of a work and you are always re-evaluating. I think the first is obviously that it has to be quality artistic work. Even if you like the story or you like the music, it has to be a quality opera. Sometimes you'll have great music, but the libretto will not be as strong. e quality of the work is definitely key. Aer that, for us at Opera Parallèle, we ask: what collaboration will be initiated by this work? For one piece we were able to collaborate with a local flamenco company because it had a lot of Spanish music from the south. Or does it have a children's chorus where we can involve the community? And right now, because we're trying to build our audience, we look at the style so that we are not always in one spot. You must vary the musical styles so that you can have a larger audience. We also like to try to do site-specific operas, with specific sized venues in mind, so we are performing in various areas of the community. Last year we performed an opera that was at a jazz center. It was the first time they were hosting an opera company in their hall, so all of these people that generally go there to hear jazz came because they were curious. So we exposed a new audience to to this art form in a beautiful space. We also take into account the cost and have to evaluate works based on the size of the orchestra. If it goes over 35, it's very difficult to find a space sometimes. Restriction gives you different opportunities and we try to think of it that way. We have commissioned quite a few re- orchestrations by composers — not reductions, but re-orchestrations. We also try not to do just American opera, but also bring works in from other countries. I think it's good for communities to hear what's being composed elsewhere to expand their sound." A PEEK INTO PUBLISHING I viewed it as a recognition of the classical music publishing sector as a whole and of my team at Boosey & Hawkes in particular. e system works on the basis of secret nominations. ere is one central nomination with support letters and, to this day, I don't know who put me forward for the honour. Why is this process so secretive? at's the way the British honors system was set up and continues with the aim of recognizing achievement in all walks of life. For instance, another honour when I got mine at Buckingham Palace was for "services to angling." Mine was for "services to music." What exactly does Boosey & Hawkes do? As a music publisher we not only publish sheet music of composers but also manage their careers by finding performance opportunities and commissions from orchestras for new works. We manage intellectual property—i.e. music copyright—for the benefit of the composers and Boosey & Hawkes. Boosey & Hawkes is one division of IMAGEM, a Dutch parent company that has two other divisions: e Rodgers & Hammerstein Organization and a pop and rock music division, which publishes artists such as Phil Collins, Elvis Presley, and Pink Floyd. How do you build such an impressive team? Look for gied people who are interested in what composers are writing and want to spread the word about new music. en train them well and give them scope to spread their wings. I have been here for 36 years (1980) and two members of my team have worked with me for over a quarter of a century. Boosey & Hawkes has published music by the following SAI Composers Bureau composers: Carol Barnett, Jack Beeson, Gordon Binkerd, Dr. Daniel Brewbaker, Elliott Carter, Jack Gottlieb, Lee Kesselman, Ursula Mamlok, William Mayer, Ned Rorem, and Persis Anne Marshall Vehar. Jayne I. Hanlin is an initiate of Alpha Omicron and current member of the St. Louis Alumnae chapter. Mrs. Hanlin, the sister of famed pianist Malcolm Frager, is the co- author of Learning Latin Through Mythology (Cambridge University Press, 1991). FOR MORE INFORMATION about Opera Parallèle, visit: operaparallele.org about the Institute for Women Conductors: dallasopera.org/learn/ womens-conducting-institute/ PAIEMENT continued from page 18 SUSSKIND continued from page 21

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