The Conductor Gertrud HerliczkaPetriček, Jera (Avtor) conductorfemale conductorconventionartistic bundlesvisual aspectThe conductor Gertrud Herliczka was born 1904 in Vienna and has conducted over 100 concerts with professional orchestras between 1927 and 1939. In writing about her, I am asking myself several questions. What is the nature of a conductor’s work? How can we describe it in its complexity? There is another aspect which raises interest: Why does being a woman on the podium matter? In this paper, I reflect upon the importance of the visual for a conductor, drawing from the book by the conductor Mark Wigglesworth. I observe how Herliczka’s gender poses a challenge for critics, reviewing her performance in one concert with the Munich Philharmonic in 1938. Through Theodore Schatzki’s theory of art bundles I approach conducting as a bundle of practices. Schatzki sees conventions as a feature of an art world, which is inevitably intertwined with other social worlds. One of the conventions in the classical musical world is a male conductor. This is also a result of the polarisation of genders, as has been shown by Karin Hausen. Herliczka’s critics were impressed by her conducting, so we can suppose she fulfilled the demands of a conductor’s bundle of practices, but she had to struggle with the prejudices against her gender. This struggle is still visible in the art world, particularly in the field of conducting.Založbe Univerze na Primorskem20252025-12-19 08:50:17Delo ni kategorizirano22272sl