War & Peace Quote by Lara St. John

The line lands like a quiet accusation disguised as an offhand comparison: if you want to understand how oppressive “then” was, look at “now,” in one of the few cultural spaces where the old hierarchy still feels almost untouched. Lara St. John isn’t making an abstract complaint about sexism in music; she’s picking a telling corner of the industry - conducting - where authority is literally performed in public, on a podium, with everyone watching who gets to command a room.

Her intent is less to litigate the past than to puncture a comforting narrative about progress. Classical music likes to brand itself as enlightened, meritocratic, above the mess of politics. St. John flips that self-image into a mirror: if the field still accepts an “utterly dominated by men” status quo, then the historical absence of women composers, leaders, and gatekeepers looks less like coincidence and more like design.

The subtext is strategic: she doesn’t claim women lack opportunities; she points to “prejudice” that women “battle,” framing the work as adversarial and ongoing. “Astounding” matters, too. It signals not only anger but disbelief that the bias persists even under modern optics, committees, and PR. It’s a word that indicts the listener: if you’re surprised, you haven’t been paying attention.

Contextually, the quote sits in a broader cultural moment where elite institutions are being asked to account for who they elevate. Conducting, with its mythology of the “maestro” and the romance of singular genius, becomes St. John’s chosen exhibit: a tradition that still confuses charisma with entitlement, and authority with masculinity.