SINGLE AIM FOR COMET IS HER MUSIC

Here are some things you should know about conductor Catherine Comet.

First, since she is French, please pronounce her last name Kom-MAY.

Second, even though the accent is heavy, her English is just fine.

Third, don’t ever call her a woman conductor.

“An orchestra is composed of musicians, not of sexes,” she says in her quiet but forceful way. “Why should the gender of the conductor make any difference?

“Wherever I go, members of the media are the only ones who make a point of the fact that I am a woman. The musicians don’t mind, and the audiences don’t seem to.”

After an exhausting day with her daughter at Marineland, Comet sits in a dressing room at Pasadena Civic Auditorium, sporting a touristy Catalina Island T-shirt. The week thus far has included two days at Disneyland and, she observes with a sigh, about that long on our freeways. Yet to come: a visit to Universal Studios.

So, these few hurried moments before her second rehearsal with the Pasadena Symphony for the orchestra’s concert tonight provide much-needed rest.

As she lights still another cigarette to calm the nerves--from the traffic jam just conquered, not the musical challenge that awaits--the subject of musical gender gap is pursued one last time: Why are there no major orchestras--and few minor ones--led by a woman?

A shrug, a smile and a simple response: “There’s no reason why this should be.” She declines to elaborate.

Clearly, it is time to move to another topic.

Reflecting on her lifelong love of making music, Comet reveals a singleness of purpose that might explain why she evidently never let something so irrelevant as gender intrude: “As long as I can remember,” she reflects, “all I ever wanted to do was conduct. When I heard the magical sound of an orchestra as a child, I knew that was for me.”

Now, Comet has moved closer to her dream of leading her own orchestra. Last September she became associate conductor of the Baltimore Symphony, largely as a result of her three-year tenure as an Exxon/Arts Endowment conductor with the St. Louis Symphony.

“I’ll lead about 100 concerts in Baltimore this year,” she says. “Five weeks of subscription programs, plus out-of-town concerts and of course summer events.” She will also make numerous guest-conducting appearances around the country.

As the orchestra begins to tune up just outside her waiting room, Comet points out the coincidence of her engagement in Pasadena.

“When I was studying at Juilliard about eight years ago, the assistant to Jean Morel, my conducting teacher, was Jorge Mester.” She adds that Mester, now the Pasadena Symphony’s music director, had nothing to do with arranging this engagement: “He did arrange the program, however.”

Comet will conduct three showpieces: Respighi’s “Fountains of Rome,” Martinu’s “Sinfonietta La Jolla” and Ravel’s “La Valse.” Mozart’s C-major Piano Concerto, with Joseph Kalichstein as soloist, completes the agenda.

Mester did more for Comet than arrange a flashy debut program, she says. “I owe him a lot. He taught me how to communicate with the players, how to talk quickly and to the point.” She flashes another embarrassed little smile. “I still feel he is behind my shoulder whenever I work.”

Though she maintains her French citizenship (she is a native of Paris), Comet is now committed to working on this side of the globe. Her American husband is chairman of the sociology department at the University of Pennsylvania.

Will an American orchestra one day be run by Comet? She is optimistic, brightly noting, “I am now among the finalists for the music directorship of two orchestras--in Grand Rapids, Mich., and Portland, Maine.”

There’s no need to point out that those positions are not exactly major league. Such matters are clearly of no concern to Comet now.

She is not yet shooting for the stars.