It’s been three years since the gender barrier was broken at the Bayreuth Music Festival in Germany.  This year it’s being smashed with no less than three women conductors.

One of them, 62 year old Australian Simone Young (above), is in her second season as chief conductor of the Sydney Symphony Orchestra and will step in for conductor Phillipe Jordan who has other commitments

There will be three cycles of Wagner’s four-opera work presented from July 28th to Aug. 25th at the German festival.

The other two women conductors are Oksana Lyniv who broke the gender barrier in 2021 and Atlanta Symphony Orchestra music director Nathalie Stutzmann.