Janos Gereben wrote:

>Last night, I made a point of the exclusive maleness of the Moscow
>Virtuosi, and somebody from the sponsoring San Francisco Performances
>organization put the question to the tour manager.  His reply:
>
>"It's tradition. Women cause too many problems."

I read that when Beecham (whose orchestra apparently contained no women)
discovered that the Philadelphis did indeed have women players he asked
Stokowski or Ormandy or whoever was directing the orchestra at the time
whether that didn't give rise to complications.  When told that it did
not, Beecham is said to have replied, "What a pity!"

wm