The only girl in the orchestra
January 31, 2025

The trombone ranks among a handful of instruments that sound most like the human voice—it represents the adults in “Peanuts,” after all. Cartoons aside, the trombone’s tenor range sits in a natural vocal register, and the trombone’s ability to slide between tones mimics the gentle lilts of a sentence.
Playing trombone is a conversation that requires immense concentration and active listening to master. I love having that conversation nearly every day.
Now, don’t get confused, I didn’t want to play the trombone. Like many a nine-year-old girl, I wanted to play the flute. I was a failed ballerina searching for my next “Waltz of the Flowers” and felt called to the instrument’s dainty trills and floating grace.
But we already had a trombone in the house that my dad played when he was in school, so I begrudgingly learned the trombone.
It took me a while to feel comfortable with the instrument, and sometimes I still struggle. When I first started playing, it was simply that the trombone was too big for me to play correctly. That’s not an issue anymore, but given the sheer volume of sound and power that the trombone can achieve, it’s not always easy to embrace.
As much as many of us would like to move on, our society holds associations between music and gender. Winds and high strings generally skew feminine, while low strings, brass and percussion typically skew masculine. This is largely informed by a deep history of how music has historically been scored, especially in the Western tradition (but that’s a story for another day).
In my decade of playing trombone, it’s always been a pleasure to play alongside other female trombonists. I’ve been lucky to play in an ensemble with five women trombonists, but I’ve also played in a dozen that had none.
When I was participating in Massachusetts’s All-State Concert Band my senior year of high school, of the 45 or so members of the brass section, less than ten were girls. Narrowing that down to low brass at 21 people, three of us were girls. Lopsided environments like these are common for me and haven’t always felt welcoming.
Over break, I saw aspects of this experience represented on screen for the first time. On my mom’s recommendation, I watched the recently released Netflix documentary “The Only Girl in the Orchestra,” in which former bassist at the New York Philharmonic Orin O’Brien shares her experience as the first woman hired to the ensemble by Leonard Bernstein in 1966.
Like the trombone, the double bass is an instrument few women have historically played. O’Brien epitomizes what it means to play an instrument like the trombone or double bass: She’s at home in the supporting role, eager to be part of something larger than herself. Though the trombone has its fanfare moments, instruments like ours paint the background of the picture, not the subject. It’s these sweeping harmonic motions that keep me coming back.
O’Brien helped pave the way for women to join the world’s top orchestras, but she was subject to much objectification in the process. A Time Magazine article from her debut described her as “as curvy as the double bass she plays.” Bernstein himself sometimes singled her out after a performance for simply playing what she was supposed to, just because she was a woman.
Sexism in classical music has only marginally improved today, and the orchestral world has experienced hard moments still. In December, two tenured members of the New York Philharmonic were fired due to sexual misconduct. A female horn player was the first to brave pressing charges for rape.
Despite a growing movement to make brass sections more inclusive, it’s still a boys’ club. I’m glad I’ve never been in that toxic of a culture, but I’ve still navigated my fair share of disparaging comments and sexist slights.
While there is still a long way to go, there’s amazing support out there for people pursuing instruments that are historically associated with another gender. It’s powerful to see not only women in brass speak out for each other but also for the entire music community to show support.
Today, I’m happy I didn’t play the flute. I love the versatility of the trombone and how the low frequencies rattle my lungs—I wouldn’t want it any other way. And I’m excited that more and more young girls continue to pick up this nine-foot-long hunk of metal and make it sing.
Julia Dickinson is a member of the Class of 2026.
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Quite a few pro, female trombonists in leading UK orchestras these days – the gender divide IS coming down at a fair pace here.