William Osborne: Artist and Activist

An interview of William Osborne by Catherine J. Pickar

As published in the IAWM Journal

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William Osborne, composer, feels his life is insignificant.  Yet, he and a group of European and American women compelled one of the most patriarchal orchestras of the world, a last bastion of the all-male performers, to admit a woman to its ranks of full membership—an immensely significant and symbolic change.  The Vienna Philharmonic admitted Anna Lelkes to full-membership on the eve of its 1997 US Tour, succumbing to the pressure from the International Alliance for Women in Music, members of the international press corps, and National Organization of Women—all of whom responded to William Osborne’s informative essay, “Art is Just an Excuse.”  Married to Abbie Conant, renowned professional trombonist, William, along with Abbie, have struggled to increase the worlds awareness of gender discrimination in orchestras.  In appreciation of his effort, members of IAWM recently presented him with a Special Recognition Award.

The grandson of homesteading cotton farmers, Osborne was born in Deming, New Mexico, a small town near the Mexican border.  The region is almost unpopulated but there seems to be something musical about the place.  Strangely, Nacio Herb Brown, who wrote Singing in the Rain . . . also comes from Deming.  “There is no less likely place on earth to find a composer, much less two,” commented Osborne.  “I grew up with the ambience of what seemed to be almost eternally distant horizons all around me.  When the Spaniards first crossed the area they named it ‘The Journey of Death.’”

When asked about his work for women in music, Osborne commented, “I think that there are many reasons for artists and intellectuals to be involved with feminism, even if sexism hasn't directly affected them or their loved ones.  Patriarchy represents a long-standing monolithic cultural paradigm.  Feminism has thus provided invigorating new insights into cultural meaning which are invaluable for artists. There is no area of human thought where it has left our views standing.  It has caused us to question even the most fundamental assumptions of human experience, such as the legitimacy of perception and the validity of language.  Feminists are breaking through the self-reinforcing circularity of male hegemony, and I think this will become on of history’s greatest revolutions.” 

Osborne and Conant currently live in a small German village near the Black Forest, where they moved when Conant resigned as principal trombonist for the Munich Philharmonic.  There they collaborate on, among many things, musical theatre productions. The first collaboration, Street Scene for the Last Mad Soprano, examines the necessity for women to create their own individual and collective cultural identity.  “Abbie and I use music theatre to explore the identity of women from a feminist perspective.  This desire to address questions of human identity lends our music a humanistic character.  The human being is what is important to us…”

Regarding future projects, Osborne further commented,  “We are thinking about something very different . . . to develop.  We want to compose a concert length work for the trombone and quadraphonic tape using stylistic elements of country-western music.  Steel guitars, banjos, jugs, and washtub basses, for example, are such strange but wonderfully lyrical and expressive instruments.  . . . It would certainly be unusual.  There aren’t too many trombone playing cowgirls up there in the old saddle.”    Yet, as so many of us do, Osborne struggles to maintain a balance between art and activism.   “When I spend months involved in musicological and social work he says I miss the spiritual impulses I experience through composing. . . . How did he [Bartok] do it?” . . . He wrote seemingly eternal music and also wrote some of the most respected ethnomusicological tomes that exist.”

This is a conflict many of us confront says Osborne. “But when I see the effective team work the IAWM showed working against the chauvinism of the Vienna Philharmonic, I feel rather hopeful.  For so long Abbie and I felt like we were screaming in an anechoic chamber, but then along came Monique Buzzarte [IAWM Liaison to Performers] with a small army of vital and energetic voices who joined us in our struggle against the abuse of women in symphony orchestras.  There’s a long way to go, but it is all so inspiring and encouraging.  It shows there is hope…”