Women belong on the podium, and Kyra Stahr is living proof
- Ariana Glaser
- Jul 28
- 4 min read
If you take the time to count how many women are running collegiate programs that offer a doctoral degree, you’ll learn there’s only thirteen. All the more reason Kyra Stahr chose to earn her Doctorate of Musical Arts at the University of Miami—at the time which she first began her degree here, the choral studies department was run by Dr. Amanda Quist.
“There were not a ton of [female] conductors in my life,” said Kyra. We sat a few feet away from the classroom where, moments earlier, she’d just finished conducting Bella Voce, the premier treble choir at the Frost School of Music. “In high school and middle school I did have a man as a conductor—who was a wonderful teacher—but you know, it’s so much easier to see yourself doing it when it’s someone who looks like you.”
And for Kyra, she can’t express enough how important it is to have someone like yourself to look up to. Throughout her entire collegiate experience, it wasn’t until the second year of her master’s degree that Kyra would finally find herself working under a female conductor—Dr. Tram Sparks, who was featured on Season 1 of Conduct(Her).
“Watching her on the podium was really inspiring for me,” said Kyra. “And so I understand that feeling of, like, oh my gosh, I’m capable of that.”
Growing up, music was simply “ingrained” in Stahr’s life. It’s the common trope that the musician is naturally gifted, and while her bright soprano and gentle sway of her baton speaks for itself, Kyra Stahr credits much of her later success to her upbringing.
Everywhere she turned, there was music. Her father played in the army band, while her mother taught—for a time, she was even Kyra’s elementary school choir teacher. Throughout primary school, Kyra flitted from instrument to instrument—including oboe, violin, clarinet, guitar, and even trumpet—before finally settling on voice as her primary instrument. Then after a particularly empowering sophomore-year performance as Sarah Brown in Guys and Dolls, Kyra decided she would follow in her parents’ footsteps and study music in college.
It helped that her sister went down the same path Kyra would later follow. McKenna Stenson was—and is—Kyra’s biggest role model. Stenson, four years Stahr’s elder, serves as an assistant professor of choral music at Florida State University.
Kyra spent much of our time together describing all she’s learned from McKenna, and when I asked McKenna what she learned from Kyra, she said, “She is somebody who is not afraid to put herself out there and to just step into a space and try. [She’s] marching to the beat of her own drum and just saying, ‘There is a space for me here.’”
It was their close bond that catapulted into action the duo’s biggest project to date—Conduct(Her). Just as Kyra was making her big move to California, McKenna was finishing her first year of her doctoral degree in Texas. In an attempt to keep in touch despite the time difference, they started a podcast.
As their website boasts, Conduct(Her) serves to “amplify women’s voices on the podium by interviewing conductors, educators, and composers while exploring the gender divide.”
Since its inception, Conduct(Her) has celebrated over 50 episodes, featuring guests from all over the conducting multiverse. But of course—they’re all women.
The League of American Orchestras reported that only one in nine music directors are women, and both Kyra and McKenna had plenty to share as to what could be the reason. They agreed that at the crux of it, women are simply not respected as equal to male conductors.
“I’ve certainly received comments that I don’t think people would make to my male counterparts,” Kyra lamented.
She went on to explain that while she’s been very lucky in the opportunities she’s been granted, she sees many other women being so clearly disparaged. But she’s not backing down:
“I think we just have to show up and do an even better job and just prove that we are capable of making great music.”
Looking toward the future, Kyra’s got her eyes on the stars. Conduct(Her) is going strong—the upcoming season will feature a series of interviews they’re calling ‘trail-blazers.’ The subjects will be women either at the end of their careers or doing something that hasn't been done before. And this fall, Kyra will join the faculty of Syracuse University's Setnor School of Music. She hopes that this position will allow her to educate the next generation of teachers so that maybe in a couple of years from now, aspiring young musicians will have a plethora of Kyra Stahrs to look up to.
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