Edna Phillips: One giant leap for women in orchestras
Edna Phillips had only been playing the harp for five years when her teacher, Carlos Salzedo, urged her to take the audition for the second harp position in the Philadelphia Orchestra.
-article by Claire Thai, (Harp, ’23)
A Secret Audition
Edna began with Debussy’s Danses Sacree et Profane. An emotionless Leopold Stokowski only gave her a simple nod at the conclusion of each piece. After hearing two of her four prepared works, he got up, thanked Edna for her performance, and left the apartment.
After a month of silence, Edna received the result of her audition—at 23 years old, she was not to become the second harpist but was to replace Vincent Fanelli as the principal harpist of the Philadelphia Orchestra.
She was the first woman to be offered a principal position in an orchestra—women were thought to be incapable of being orchestral musicians of any caliber. In spite of her successful audition, Edna felt certain that she would fail as the principal harpist due to her relative inexperience and the immense pressure that such a prestigious ensemble would bring.
Salzedo reassured her, saying: “Don’t you know how musical you are? If we cut your wrists, you would bleed music, not blood. You must not let a chance like this one slip away.”
The Gauntlet
Edna began preparation for the upcoming season by practicing between twelve and sixteen hours every day, trying to solidify her technique and overcome the unique difficulties of the harp. She quickly advanced but no amount of practice could prepare her for the hostility she would face as the first woman in the orchestra, especially the one that had so hastily replaced the well-respected Vincent Fanelli. As a result, Edna kept her distance from the men—never to the point of rudeness, but she had no interest in bringing even more attention to herself.
“He [Stokowski] eventually called her up to mark her music and on the bottom wrote, “Will you take lunch with me today? Answer Yes or No.”
The orchestra’s general distaste for Edna did not mean she was immune to their romantic interest—in particular, the interest of Stokowski and eventually Eugene Ormandy. In her biography, Edna recalls an incident where she began to notice a different energy coming from Stokowski at the podium. He eventually called her up to mark her music and, on the bottom, wrote, “Will you take lunch with me today? Answer Yes or No.” She agreed, fearing for her job. At the same time, she also recalled a warning from Salzedo: “Do not let yourself get involved with any of these men in the orchestra or you will one day find yourself thrown away like an old shoe.” To try to gracefully excuse herself from the date, Edna said she had to be in town to teach a harp lesson by 2 pm so they should have lunch in town instead of at Stokowski’s apartment. He replied, “Oh, I don’t think so … I don’t think people would understand.” Edna quickly responded with, “What is there to understand?” Stokowski never asked her to lunch again. When asked about Ormandy’s advances, she exclaimed, “That worm! You think I’d give in to him after resisting the glamorous one?”
