Audition
Conant's auditions were blind, with musicians and the selection committee separated by a screen. This was a novel practice at the time, and was due to the fact that one of the other 32 auditioning trombonists was the son of a prominent musician. Following Conant's audition on June 19, 1980, the orchestra's then Guest Conductor Sergiu Celibidache exclaimed "That's who we want!"[4]
After they made their selection, the selection committee were shocked to discover their winner, whom they had mistakenly addressed in correspondence as "Herr Conant", was a woman.[16][2] Celibidache continued to harass Conant, subtly and blatantly,[7][17] and had since been promoted to Music Director. In September 1982, Celibidache demoted her to second trombone and refused to give her solos, explaining that "we need a man for solo trombone".[4][18] The Munich Philharmonic stopped using blind auditions after Conant's success.
Legal trials
In 1982, Conant initiated legal proceedings against the City of Munich (the Philharmonic's owner) for discrimination[19][4][20] and regained the position of first trombone in 1984.[7]
The first court hearing took place on 17 August 1982, initiated by City of Munich lawyers. Despite this, no ruling could be made as no "specific or concrete criticism" of Conant in concert was produced.[21] The city lawyers also failed to provide the legally required written warnings.[21] A new trial date was set for 16 June 1983, for which city lawyers provided the following basis for demotion:
The plaintiff does not possess the necessary physical strength to be a leader of the trombone section; she is not in the position to clearly lead the trombone group. Apart from that, she lacks the required empathy to translate the artistic wishes of the General Music Director[22]
In response to this, Conant went for examinations at the Gautinger Lung Clinic.[16] There, she was made to
breathe inside a sealed cabin and have blood taken from her ear to see how efficiently her body absorbed oxygen. She had to blow through numerous machines to measure the capacity of her lungs, and the speed at which she could inhale and exhale air. She had to disrobe and let a doctor examine her rib cage and chest[17][23]
in order to assess, in the judge's words,
whether the Plaintiff--for an orchestra of the quality of the Munich Philharmonic --possesses unconditionally the necessary physical strength, endurance, and durability to play the most difficult passages according to conductors’ instructions for length, intensity, and loudness.[24]
Celibidache attended the second trial, but was not invited to give testimony due to lack of substantiated criticism.[25]
The court ruled in favour of Conant on 29 March 1984, citing:
“The suit is permissible because the change in work assignments, due to the lack of a substantiated argument, is unjustified.”
“The accused has not justified their demotion with facts, but rather generalized value judgments.”
“Above and beyond that, they do not say when (date) the alleged mistakes happened. They also do not mention when the plaintiff was given a warning.”
“It is therefore not possible for the court to determine what the plaintiff did wrong, or determinable whether she took the alleged warnings to heart, or in other words, whether the mistakes were made again after the warning.”[26]
She then successfully sued the orchestra again for back pay when she discovered that, per Celibidache's orders,[7] she had been paid less than her male colleagues.[27]
Malcolm Gladwell said Conant's story was "my inspiration" for his bestseller, Blink, and it served as the book's concluding chapter.[28] Her story was also told in a 1994 full-length documentary film, Abbie Conant: Alone Among Men by Brenda Parkerson.[7]
