When it comes to leading positions in the world of music, women are still an exception. Orchestral conducting continues to be under male control. Roit Feldenkreis, an Israeli orchestra conductor, had a chance to conduct the Symphony Orchestra of the Paraguay National Congress and make a difference.
Only a tiny percentage of chamber and opera orchestras are conducted by women. In an almost exclusively-male world, female conductors are still an extravaganza. Perhaps that is why the performance of Israeli orchestra conductor Roit Feldenkreis is so noteworthy. A few days ago, Feldenkreis conducted the 7th Concert of the 2016 International Official Cycle of the National Congress Symphony Orchestra. The event took place in the Municipal Theater.
“I feel very happy. It was wonderful. I met amazing musicians and an excellent orchestra.” Roit also happens to be a soprano, “I barely ever sing nowadays,” she says. Roit spends most of her time conducting orchestras, but in her childhood and teenage years she used to sing at the Israeli Opera Chorus and the Israeli Philharmonic Orchestra Choir. “My ultimate dream was to conduct.”
Roit started studying music at age 7 at her school choir. Her music professor saw a hidden potential and gave her extra assignments. “I studied flute, clarinet and other instruments, but I wasn’t especially attracted to any of them,” she recalls. During that time, she became part of her school choir and, later on, she joined a famous choir in Israel with which she practically traveled the whole world.
Even then, when she sang at the choir, she used to think: “I would love to conduct this piece I’m singing and see what I could do with it.” Sometime afterwards, when she started studying at what is now the Buchman-Mehta School of Music of Tel Aviv, Roit decided that she would become a choir or orchestra conductor. Eventually she chose the latter – her true passion. People used to say: “You are a singer, you should conduct the choir,” but she would answer: “No. I want the orchestra.” Fortunately, she never suffered from any sort of discrimination based on her gender. “At school, there were not many female conductors, but nowadays there is a sound gender balance; I would say now it is about 50/50,” she assures.
Over the years she has decided this is what she wants: to conduct, to have all the music inside her head before she passes it on to her hands. She took that first step at the academic environment.
Roit (36) has been married for 13 years and has three kids of age 9, 6 and 2. By the time she started studying her MA she had already married and had her first child. That is why she looked for an orchestra that would be close to her home, and eventually she found it. She is currently conductor of the Moshavot Chamber Orchestra in Israel. “Everyone there is a volunteer, no one gets paid. In Israel, only extremely professional musicians can earn a living from their profession,” she remarks.
She believes conducting is not an easy job, because conductors must keep in mind what the public wants to hear, propose programs that contain classic and modern repertoires, and still make it all work. “I feel privileged to live from music; not everyone can do it and also have the chance to travel around the world.”
When conducting, what she wants most is to delve into music and deliver her soul to the musicians so they, in turn, can convey to the audience exactly how she feels and thinks the composer would have liked his work to be performed.
Having finished her MA, Roit started sending videos everywhere. One of such videos, together with her CV, were actually spotted by Diego Sánchez Haase. He talked with her about the possibility of visiting Paraguay and about the repertoire they could elaborate. They contacted the Israel Embassy and the deal was sealed.
Roit is very grateful for the opportunity of coming and knowing Paraguay and its kind people. “I love Paraguay because it is such a relaxed place; people are friendly and warm. It is incredible. Thank you so much for having invited me. This was an enormous opportunity for me.”