Maestro Zoe Zeniodis’ relationship with music began at the age of 6 with piano lessons. “My grandmother was from Izmir, so it was a foregone conclusion that I would follow the French-piano-ballet triad,” he says.

He made a career in Europe as a pianist, mainly as an accompanist of classical music and opera. She continued to study and work until she moved to Miami to complete her PhD in piano accompaniment. By chance, he decided to go to the courses of conductors. A month later, the professor called her into his office and said: “I firmly believe that you should immediately change direction and become a conductor.” “But that’s impossible, I’m a woman,” she replied. He became furious: “What do you mean? You can be whoever you want, you can even go to the moon if you want.” From that moment began a huge chapter in her professional life, which continues with years of hard work and many sacrifices.

A few days before predictions are confirmed that they want Cate Blanchett to win this year’s Oscar for first actress, interpreting the steely master musician Linda Tarr in the film of the same name, the film “Maestra” will be screened in Thessaloniki. Festival. A documentary film by American Maggie Contreras, who has had a cult following of classical orchestral music since childhood, but the dream of such a career was out of reach for her poor Hispanic family from Arizona, tells about five women with the same dream. They are all five candidates for the La Maestra competition, the only one in the world for female orchestra conductors. The idea for “La Maestra” was born by French maestro Claire Guibault in 2018, when a man told her that women were “not anatomically made” to lead an orchestra. Thanks to her initiative and the partnership of the Paris Philharmonic and the Mozart Orchestra of Paris, the organization of La Maestra became a reality.

In this context, in March 2022, fourteen women from all over the world gathered in Paris to claim a place among the world’s greatest musicians, hoping to take another step forward in their careers. Contreras’ documentary focuses on five of them and tells personal stories of survival, passion and perseverance that are intertwined with the intensity and excitement of this unique event. Mothers, daughters, wives, friends come to Paris from all over the world, overcoming obstacles and following roads that sometimes bring them face to face with themselves. They are united by love for music, talent, determination and a sense of solidarity.

This is Parisiana Melis, who returns to her hometown from the Iowa Corn Belt where she teaches in college to cope with the competition as well as her family traumas.

The youngest Anna was born into a warm and loving Polish family and is mentored and guided by her father, who is also a conductor.

Tamara from Atlanta, a young wife married to a police officer from the rural South, who is still searching for herself and wonders if a pregnant woman can conduct an orchestra.

“In my entire career, no one has ever told me that I can’t do what I do, simply because I work my hardest and it shows and sounds.”

Ukrainian Ustina, whose priorities are changing due to world events, should consider whether to withdraw from the competition, or whether music is the most personal and important way to protest against what is happening in her country.

The fifth candidate is Zoya Zeniodis from Greece, mother of two six-year-old twins. Her entire career has been an uphill battle, starting with her being fired from her first major position in Greece because she got pregnant. She works as a freelance conductor of the orchestra and only in 2022 collaborated with, among others, the Lyric Opera of Chicago, the Santa Fe Opera, the Queensland Opera, the Bremen Philharmonic Orchestra, the National Symphony Orchestra of Colombia. What does this mean for her life and her family? “By choice, I did not work until my children were five years old so that I could be fully intimate with them,” she replies. “So at first I traveled very little, and my attempt to work in our country so that I could raise them in peace and security was not successful. For the last year and a half, since the major production of The Marriage of Figaro in New Zealand, which my children have of course joined in, I have been working non-stop and it seems that this will never change. soon. Wherever I can, I travel with them, although it is no longer easy to continue because of the school. It is extremely difficult not to be able to work in one’s own country. On the other hand, I am one of the very few Greek musicians who permanently and exclusively work abroad.”

In the documentary Maestra, renowned American conductor Marin Alsop, chief conductor of the Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra, admits that when she was 9 years old, a music teacher told her: “Girls don’t become conductors.”

“In my entire career, it has never happened that someone told me that I can’t do what I do, simply because I work as well as I can, and it can be heard and seen,” says Ms. Zeniodis when we ask her. if she had a similar experience. “However, yes, career opportunities for women are indeed much more limited. Fortunately, there are constant efforts to change and I am one of those women who work hard to bring equality and an easier path for young women. Organizations like La Maestra are very helpful in this. They provide opportunities and a network is being created that helps all of us. Last week I worked in Avignon and Bourges, and next week in Paris with the Orchester de Paris, where I will be Marin Alsop’s assistant. I would like to live to see the day when no one will be asked about their gender, they just get on the podium not thanks to acquaintances or means, but clearly and only thanks to their hard work and their high art.

Now, when she takes up her duties in the orchestra, she is asked if she wants to be called maestro or maestro. “As you wish,” he replies. “I don’t care at all. The main thing is to do your job well.” And what does she think about this work? specific instruments involving mind and body He carefully studies the language of each composer and respectfully develops a relationship with them, which he then passes on to the rest of the musicians He is not arrogant and does not use the podium to raise his ego a few more points He works with musicians because that this is the only way relations develop, and that’s the point.”

The film “Maestra” will be screened at the Thessaloniki Documentary Film Festival (2-12/3) and “K” saw it in an exclusive press screening.