The Only Girl In The Orchestra

When she first joined the New York Philharmonic Orchestra back in 1966, Orin O’Brien had to get changed in the toilets because there was no women’s dressing room.

She might not have made it at all if it were not for the support of Leonard Bernstein. Her attraction to playing in that context stemmed partly from her preference for being in the background, working together with other musicians to create something bigger, so she was not a natural trailblazer. Together with her niece Molly O’Brien, who directed this Oscar-shortlisted short documentary, she looks back through press clippings from the time. Many words are spent describing her clothes, her looks, her imagined love life and domestic ambitions – and, of course, comparing her curves with those of her double bass. There’s barely a word about her musical talent.

The daughter of movie stars, Orin was not entirely unprepared for that kind of thing, and somebody had to be the first to break through the glass ceiling. Watching her at work with the young people she now teaches, we see the love for her instrument that made it worthwhile. A box room in her NYC apartment is full of double basses. The living room, lined with books and sheafs of music and assorted ornaments, makes a snug home for a baby grand piano. The camera squeezes in where it can; likewise in the dimly lit back corridors and practice rooms of the labyrinth that surrounds the concert hall. When we finally move out into all that space, the effect is striking, and this very centred, self-possessed woman becomes just a small part of a grand creation.

There are many more women in the orchestra today. The whole atmosphere has changed. Compared with the archive pictures, it looks far less stiff and self-conscious; there are varied clothes and people who look as if they can more easily move to do their jobs. Orin is stepping back but leaves a tremendous legacy in her wake. Her feelings about it are complicated and her relationship with Molly allows for an intimacy that might not have been possible with another documentarian. Snippets of their conversations build together to let us see a real person, at odds with the tradition of legend-building. In the process, it reminds us not only of the ludicrousness of the barriers that used to be in place, but of the human reasons why change matters.