Doriot Swyer Interview - Part III

We have come to the third and final segment of the ICA Classics interview with Powell player, Doriot Anthony Dwyer, former Principal Flutist with the Boston Symphony Orchestra -- and the first female to hold a principal chair in a major symphony orchestra. Click here to view the first segment and here to see the second segment.

In this clip, we learn much more about Ms. Dwyer's lesson experiences and how she addressed challenges as an orchestral player in the day and age of being in the minority as a female player.  She briefly discussed one of her sisters, who was a very talented pianist, but who Doriot recalled used to break down and cry quite often.  Ms. Dwyer felt that that was definitely not a route she would take as a musician, stating that she would tell herself, "I can be brave.  I'm not going to try to get anything with tears -- I'm just not going to do that."  She continued, "And it was difficult with conductors, because in some ways they are so gentlemanly to women, and in other ways they are so awful -- for the very same reason -- they don't know what to do about these women."  Of course, "these women" are the female orchestral players.

As the interview progresses, Ms. Dwyer touches on her strategies for working through difficult tempi and the fear of making mistakes.  She discusses having one teacher who told her, "You don't know how to play fast.  You don't know how to control yourself when you play fast."  She said at that point she decided, "I was going to practice them until I got them right!"  She then offers more stories from her high school days and lessons in Evanston, Illinois with Ernest Liegl, former Principal Flutist with the Chicago Symphony.  Recalling their lessons, she remembered him saying, "Let's hear how you play it, and don't worry about mistakes.  Just don't worry about it.  Maybe we don't have to do anything about it.  So, do the best that you can, and let's see what you did with it."  She continues with a discussion of how important it is to practice difficult repertoire with fast tempi slowly, stating, "It doesn't stay difficult if you stay slow and get everything just right, and then take it a little bit faster, and a little bit faster, until you go, 'I never had any difficulty with any technical thing'."

Toward the end of the interview, it is quite clear that Ms. Dwyer built herself a strong foundation for becoming a professional orchestral musician through perseverance, courage, and a level-headed approach to the meeting any musical challenge.  She concludes with a final note on Mr. Liegel's teaching style, which she appreciated for its objectivity.  She says, "He never said anything just to cheer me up.  He would say 'fine' and 'very fine' -- and that was about it!"

Doriot Dwyer Interview - Part II

In a previous post, last month, we shared the first segment of a three-part interview by ICA Classics on Powell player Doriot Anthony Dwyer, former Principal Flutist with the Boston Symphony Orchestra -- and the first female to hold a principal chair in a major symphony orchestra. Click here to view the first segment from our December 15th, 2013 post.

In the second segment of the interview, we learn more about Ms. Dwyer's upbringing.  She came from a very musical family, guided by her mother, who was also a flutist.  Her mother was one of four girls who each played a musical instrument, although their father was a businessman.  Her mother was raised to be very self-sufficient and self-disciplined due to the passing of her own mother at a very young age.  The discipline and self-control that her mother developed was certainly passed down to Ms. Dwyer, who recalls that she had to teach herself how to learn the music when she was in the Boston Symphony.  She recalls advice that her mother received from Dwyer's grandfather: "You have to learn to control yourself.  One day, you will have to have a job, and you will have to keep on playing, even if there are difficulties in your life."

When asked if she were scared when auditioning for the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Ms. Dwyer said, "If I were scared, I wouldn't be trying out.  I couldn't be scared.  I knew I was never going to hear 'bravo' because I was a woman.  I hoped that if I did really well, the orchestra would cheer me on as they cheered their own."  She described conductors Pierre Monteux and Charles Munch as being very kind to her.  She mentioned that Mr. Munch was much more outward with his support, although she said, "He would never come up and give me a hug, and I wished he would -- because everything was so hard."  The gender discrepancies were quite evident, as she continued, "It was so hard for me to do all these things, and if I missed something, everybody knew it.  But, if someone else missed, everyone would say, 'This is really hard -- you see?  He made a mistake.  That shows how hard it was'."  But, Ms. Dwyer kept to herself and persevered despite the challenges of the time.

Doriot Dwyer Interview - Part I

Powell player Doriot Anthony Dwyer is a living legend and pioneer of the flute world, having been the first female to hold a principal chair in a major U.S. symphony orchestra.  Dwyer won the principal flute chair for the Boston Symphony Orchestra in 1952 and held that position through 1990.  Prior to Boston, she performed as second flutist with the National Symphony Orchestra and Los Angeles Philharmonic, and as principal flutist with the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra.  She also performed as a studio musician in Los Angeles and with Frank Sinatra and the Ballets Russes in New York.  She attended the Interlochen Arts Academy and is a graduate of the Eastman School of Music.

ICA Classics released a three-part interview with Ms. Dwyer, and in this video clip, we see the very first of the three segments.  Dwyer recounts her earliest introduction to music at home, listening to radio broadcasts of the Metropolitan Opera.  Her familiarity with the operatic literature proved helpful later in her private lessons with then principal flutist of the Chicago Symphony, Ernest Liegl.  Traveling 100 miles from her hometown into Chicago for private lessons, she remembers the hour-long lessons, which consisted of at least one etude followed by orchestral studies.  In this interview, she discusses opera as a genre that she did not necessarily prefer, but that she enjoyed because it was challenging -- and thrilling.  She recalls having to sight-read an opera during her days with the National Symphony.  She credits experiences such as that one to preparing her for the Boston Symphony.  Dwyer explained that she would not allow herself to be distracted and did not want to "slip,"  She said, "I didn't think it was possible to lose track of where I was, because it was just so interesting, but that's exactly where people lose track..." Commenting on her position as a female orchestral flutist in the 1940s, Dwyer remembers her conductor in Washington, D.C.  She says, "They never expected me to me good at all, because I was a girl -- think of that! But, (the conductor) never said he was surprised, because if he did, it would mean he didn't expect much from me, and he didn't want me to feel that way."