When I chose to become a bass player all those years ago in 1989 I was under the impression I was entering a profession that is a male dominating one which I was quite happy about as I tend to work easier with guys than with the ladies.
Fast forward 30ish years and I share the stage with a female dominant bass section! 😳 There’s myself being the principal and Zanelle, our lovely tutti player and our 1 male, Donat, as a rock in the middle on sub principal position.
This month however Donat has gone overseas for family affairs and the players that replace him are both … female! Next to that the remaining 4th seat for symphony concerts is also being filled with ladies so instead of August being women’s month in SA (9th August is Women’s day in SA) for the CPO bass section September is Women’s month!
As I wrote, females are not necessarily my preferred people to work with. I am a quite straight forward kinda girl, being Dutch and all and with a Rotterdam ‘niet lullen, maar poetsen’ attitude (no nonsense and get to work … freely translated 😉) and guys tend to not care and appreciate the directness which is why it’s normally easier to work with them for me.
However … these are bass ladies, bass chicks, not your regular bokkie girls. They lift basses, drop low E’s (or B’s 😬), take no nonsense and will threaten with their endpin if needed 🤨
These various bass ladies that joined Zanelle and myself these weeks at the Cape Town Philharmonic Orchestra were a force to be reckoned with! From all the positive ‘you go ladies’ comments coming from our loyal audience we could tell they felt the force too.
For myself, I noticed the female sensitivity in playing, yet the strength through fortissimo passages and then the sheer fun and giggles we had! 🤭
I will be happy to have my steady rock Donat back next week, but yes… it is true … girls just wanna have fun! (and rock the bass section in the meantime 🤘🏻)
To be continued … 🙂
Roxane Steffen 