On June 17, 1925, Ethel Leginska conducted the Boston Philharmonic Orchestra in Carnegie Hall — one of the first women to conduct a major professional orchestra in the United States.

Leginska had built the Boston Philharmonic herself, recruiting musicians and fundraising when no existing orchestra would hire a woman to conduct. The concert was a critical success. The reviews were a cultural document of the era: they praised her conducting while devoting substantial paragraphs to her appearance, the fact that she wore trousers, and whether women could be expected to command the authority required to lead an orchestra.

She continued conducting, including her own opera, Gale, which was performed in Chicago in 1935 — making her one of the first women to have an opera produced professionally in the United States.

The orchestral world of the early 20th century operated on a de facto ban. No major American orchestra hired a permanent female conductor until 1975. The Berlin Philharmonic admitted its first female musicians in 1982. The Vienna Philharmonic did not admit women as full members until 1997.

Leginska largely retired to Los Angeles in the 1940s, where she taught piano until her death in 1970. Her recordings and conducting career are largely absent from mainstream music history.