The Wrong Hair Problem.

I just watched a Chinese orchestra playing some Brahms, and do you know what was odd? All the women violinists had black hair. I’ve never seen such a thing before.

I’ve often noticed that in western orchestras, the overwhelming trend is for female violinists to have blonde hair. I always assumed it was a required qualification for the job. Cellists are the ones with dark hair. Hair to suit the tone of the instrument, you see. Simple.

But of course, the difficulty of maintaining the tradition now that we are thoroughly globalised is that not many Chinese women have blonde hair.