bandmistress

plural bandmistresses

1. The conductor, leader, or musical director of a band.

   Past us marched a female band in white, a female bandmistress at the fore.

   1985, Arthur Crew Inman, The Inman Diary, A Public and Private Confession · Volumes 1-2, page 422

   2 more examples

   One of the Sisters is Superior, and she is assisted in the government by bandmistresses chosen from among the elder members, whose duty it is to watch lovingly and carefully over the members of their bands.

   1877, Charles Fuge Lowder, Twenty-one Years in S. George's Mission, An Account of Its Origin, Progress, and Works of Charity, page 57

   One is constantly seeing advertisements of missing bags, and purses, and lockets, and jewellery, dogs, and sometimes children, but never a lost bandmistress!

   1903, Haggerston S. Saviour's Priory, Memories of a Sister of S. Saviour's Priory, page 338