The Only Girl in the Orchestra

“Born of Hollywood Silver Screen stock - George O'Brien and Marguerite Churchill, Orin O'Brien studies ballet as a child before taking up the double bass and trailblazing for her sex to become the first woman to play for the New York Philharmonic Orchestra. Of course there isn't a great deal of archive of her actual performances and so we are left to survive on a sparing collection of photographs and plenty of Beethoven from the soundtrack as this half hour really only narrates what she is up to in her later years. Having retired after half a century playing, and having been on the board of the acclaimed Juliard school for a decade, she is now teaching and seems to have her late teen pupils eating from her hands. However, with her apartment succumbing to a nasty looking black mould, she is finally looking to relocate and to retire too. O'Brien comes across here as a charismatic woman with plenty to say about her struggles to get noticed and included in what was hitherto an all-male profession. That said, we don't just get a rancourous rant here. She is respectful of the talent of the others in the orchestra; readily acknowledges the importance of playing in a team (initially under Leonard Bernstein) and genuinely seems happy enough with her life and it's achievements as she looks back. This is not so much a documentary as a series of video diary style talking heads, and though interesting enough it doesn't really capture the development of her own life in music. Indeed, we see more of her parents and a very young looking John Wayne than we do her. It's clearly a labour of love from her very proud daughter Molly, and it passes half an hour - but it does underwhelm, I'm afraid.”