The Last Night of the Proms

Summary:

First ever female director for Night of the Proms

BBC Proms has appointed the first female conductor for the night of the proms. The festival, which begins on the 12th of July, includes a massive array of concerts at the Royal Albert Hall and 4 others across the UK, but this will be the first time that it will feature a female conductor, Marin Alsop. "I'm extraordinarily proud to be the first woman, but I'm also sad that it's 2013 and there still can be firsts for women," she said.
The BBC proms runs from the 12th of July until the 7th of September. A full list of details can be found on the BBC website.

Words: 107

Personal opinion:

As Marin Alsop already stated, I also feel sad that we still live in an age where there are still things that have 'female firsts'. While I do feel this is an incredible development for feminism worldwide, the fact that it has taken us this long to finally appoint a female conductor for an event as big as the last night of the proms, astonishes me. I'm all for female empowerment, but I feel it's important that occassions like this should become a natural occurance, and not forced just because 'we haven't had a female do this before, so we might as well get it over with'.

Words: 107

Source: BBC News. (2013, April 20)

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-22188201