JOANN FALLETTA, the new principal conductor of the Ulster Orchestra, is the first American to hold that post, and also the first woman. Women on the podium are still something of a rarity, but Falletta, who is also conductor of the Buffalo Philharmonic and Virginia Symphony orchestras, started out blissfully unaware that being a woman might cause her to run into barriers.

“I knew I was in love with conducting,” she says. “I knew I had to be in the middle of an orchestra. The repertoire was overwhelming to me. And it never really occurred to me that there might be problems. I think it’s the same with young people today. You can’t dissuade someone who’s in love with the trumpet, even if he knows there are maybe three openings a year in orchestras in the States and 4,000 people applying for them.

“I think I was the same. I had to do this. I never questioned it. My parents didn’t know the ins and outs of the music world. If they had, they might have said: ‘Well, this is probably not going to work. There aren’t a lot of women that we see all the time on the podium.’ Luckily, they didn’t know that.”

The barriers that remain today, Falletta says, are mainly encountered in Germany and Austria. “I find when I’m there that it takes a couple of rehearsals for musicians to just kind of come to terms with it and forget about it. In the States it’s not that much of an issue.”

Her teachers, Sixten Ehrling and Jorge Mester, became her role models, while Leonard Bernstein, whom she also encountered as a student at Juilliard, was an iconic figure. “He never showed any prejudice toward women,” she says. “He was very open, and very kind to young conductors. He was less kind to composers. He seemed to have more of an issue with composers and his place in that world. But with conductors he was very open. He was an icon really. He couldn’t be a role model, because one couldn’t model oneself after Leonard Bernstein. He was truly a unique individual.”

I ask if the archetypal 20th-century conductors, men such as Bernstein, Toscanini and Karajan, would seem out of place in the 21st century. Falletta thinks they would.

“Conductors are very different today,” she says. “On the young side, there’s Gustavo Dudamel. I think it’s his passion that comes through. He’s a world unto himself in a different way. Mariss Jansons is a man I greatly admire, and Charles Dutoit. They’re great individualists, and even though the ego is there, I think it’s healthy for them that the old kind of megalomaniac personality doesn’t really work in that situation any more. Leadership works, and authority, and confidence. But abuses that used to take place don’t work any more.”

The technical standards of orchestral playing have been rising constantly in recent years, which means that the issues dealt with by contemporary conductors are different from those of earlier generations.

“When you start at a higher level, where do you go from there?” asks Falletta. “If you start with an orchestra that’s making note mistakes and rhythm mistakes, you know what your job is. You’re going to do that job diligently and get them to a certain level that is better. If you start with an orchestra that plays beautifully, then what happens? The intangibles of direction, of balance, of proportion, of a kind of articulation that’s different, of a kind of weaving sections together in a framework, all of that takes more imagination and creativity. But that’s what that orchestra wants. You don’t have to tell them details. You’re thinking of architecture, you’re thinking of momentum, of creating a kind of sound world that’s different.

“And, for me, you’re also trying to get the orchestra to play individually. You’re not trying to make the Buffalo Philharmonic sound like the Virginia Symphony sound like the Ulster Orchestra. You’re asking how can I get their individual gifts to come to the fore? How can I make this performance truly theirs, so that no other orchestra will play it quite that way?”

For her time in Belfast, she’s working on recording plans with Naxos, with whom she already has a long and successful relationship, and is exploring music by composers from all parts of Ireland. She’s fired up by the long-neglected Ina Boyle and hopes to introduce some American music beyond her upcoming Belfast Festival concert.

Conductors in the US can find themselves engaged in extensive socialising, proselytising and fundraising. “I do an awful lot of that in the States,” she says, “because our orchestras are supported by private individuals and corporations, not by governments. There’s a great deal of friend-raising in a way, or of sharing with a community why the arts are important. Actually I used to dread that – it’s not something you learn in school – but I found in doing that you really do become an ambassador for your organisation, and there are benefits to the collaborations and contacts you have with people. That kind of connection with people bears fruit.”

Falletta has already begun making new connections in Belfast, giving a taster concert of the upcoming season and introducing the music directly to the audience from the podium. “Whether or not it’s raising funding, the idea of raising awareness of classical music is so important,” she says.

Highs, lows Falletta and music

Earliest musical memory?"When I was seven my father gave me a little classical guitar for my birthday. I remember being stunned. I remember how the guitar felt, pressing down the strings, the wooden smell of it, and thinking 'this is fantastic'."

Most cherished musical memory?"Bringing the Virginia Symphony, which is a regional symphony orchestra, to Carnegie Hall, against all odds. To hear that orchestra play so well, and to get rave reviews."

Listened to most recently?"I've been listening to a lot of Irish music – Moeran, Ina Boyle, Ferguson, Harty, older Irish music – trying to understand the cultural life that's led up to the more contemporary voices."

Most exciting new piece you've encountered?"John Corigliano's Mr Tambourine Man, taking words by Bob Dylan and writing his own wild music to it, and his Red Violin Concerto."

Best thing about being a conductor?"Being in the middle of a team that is so extraordinary. It's like a force field."

Worst thing about being a conductor?"In the States, it's the challenges of constantly taking care of the financial health of your organisation."

JoAnn Falletta conducts the Ulster Orchestra, with pianist Joanna MacGregor, in Bernstein, Copland, Gershwin, Piazzolla and Marquez at Belfast Waterfront Hall tomorrow at 7.45pm