The Academy that Jordi Savall set up to get the best instrumentalists to form the baroque orchestra of his Vivaldi project has meant a meeting between twenty women who are no more than 39 years old and who already have experience as freelancers in several orchestras. But they had never had the opportunity to work in a similar environment.
They suddenly enjoyed a freedom to be able to talk to each other, during the short breaks in the rehearsals, about certain topics that even now, in the third decade of the 21st century, are still a reason for silence: the experiences of sexual abuse and violence. And not just within the family, but at work, which in their case points to the orchestras for which they work as freelancers.
Sabrina Chauris, one of the viola players of this Four Seasons project, explains how in this safe space that Le Concert des Nations Féminin has been for them, she was able to verify, speaking in a small committee with some colleagues, that in the last decade there have continued to be cases of violations by musicians in orchestras. Cases that, in the vast majority, have gone unreported.
“If your harasser or your rapist is in the same orchestra, you won’t find a space like this to be able to talk about it. And working as a freelancer and for a small orchestra is probably where you have the least chance of being able to report, because there is no institution to turn to. In an ensemble, we play for a production and then everyone goes home. And maybe there are men who imagine that it is a favorable context for having this kind of predatory behavior, because it is impossible to do anything about it”, he says.
Established in Catalonia two years ago, this 38-year-old French woman is particularly sensitive to this issue. At 36, she finally had the courage to report the sexual abuse she suffered as a child and teenager by her brother, two and a half years older than her. And then, as a young woman, by the father of her child.
“It’s starting to become a less taboo subject, but there is violence within the world of music. And the work as an artist demands your whole being, it requires the best of yourself: emotional and psychological stability. And if you have experienced sexual violence, which is the case for many – more than half of women have suffered it at some point in their lives, according to statistics – it is difficult to have confidence. You may not even be able to stand people looking at you.” In his case, music, he says, has helped him a lot to overcome the trauma. “It’s not just a therapy, it’s a tool to build your life,” he says.
For Chauris, not everyone is Jordi Savall, “in the human sense”. “Activating a project only for women has a powerful meaning – he warns – and hopefully the day will come when positive discrimination will not be necessary. But in addition, Savall is a very good person, I have never met a conductor so kind and gentle, and he shows true loyalty to his musicians. That’s why I felt motivated to share with him this situation that takes place in the music world. I wrote him a letter. And I almost cried when I gave it to her.”
“This is not an issue that has affected us – replies Savall to questions from La Vanguardia – but I am aware that it occurs. For me it is a fundamental condition that the people who play in my orchestra are good people. I can’t stand toxic people, I have a sixth sense and I distance myself from them. I am an emotional and sensitive being…, despite being a man [smiles]. Because in a certain sense I have a very feminine sensibility, also, since our language, music, is very subtle, refined, and in life you can’t differentiate what you are as a musician from who you are as a person”, he concludes.
