The Conductor(film, 25 October 2018)

25/10/2021

Written and directed by Maria Peters, the film ‘The Conductor’ is based on the true story of the Dutch born Antonia Brico. In the late 1920’s she was the world’s first woman who successfully conducted a large symphony orchestra. Until recent, women barely succeeded to reach the world’s top ranking conductors. Until 2017, none of the world's 50 best conductors in the world is a woman.

In 2018, for the first time in Dutch history, the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra appointed a woman as its Chief Conductor: Karina Canellakis.

Antonia Brico, the real heroine who inspired the film The Conductor

The story

United States 1926: The Dutch, 24-year-old Antonia Brico was a child when she and her parents immigrated to the United States. She dreams of becoming a conductor, but nobody takes her ambition seriously. After hard working and sheer persistence, she managed to enter into the conservatory, but soon afterwards she was forced to leave it after her piano teacher accused her of physical attack after his failed attempts of assault.

With the help of her friend Robin, a musician, Antonia was able to survive and love also knocks on her door. But the dream of becoming a conductor never leaves her.
she returns to her motherland, where she begs her idol, the famous Holland conductor Mengelberg to teach her conducting lessons. Mengelberg is not comfortable with the idea and sends her to Berlin where she, against all expectations, has a better chance as a woman to make it. After a two-year study at the State Academy of Music she becomes the first woman to conduct the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra. Then she goes back to USA, will she be able to achieve the same in New York?