“Researchers at Indiana University have been digitally preserving recordings of Native American songs made on fragile wax cylinders more than 100 years ago.” – YES! Magazine

“Teachers in a wide variety of venues, including university professors, who seek a multicultural-intercultural-global array of songs, instrumental pieces, dance, and listening selections are locating them online, where they are finding the results of fieldwork by ethnomusicologists that apply to their curricular practices and programs. … Attention to the two coinciding yet distinctive fields, along with a glance at the emerging studies in Community Music and Applied Ethnomusicology, provide insights leading to policies on pathways to diversity, equity, and inclusion in and through music.” – Arts Education Policy Review

“Jecorey Arthur uses his extensive knowledge of music to educate kids, entertain people of all ages, and give back to his community. He performs and records his own music under the name 1200, teaches at Simmons College of Kentucky, and brings music education to Louisville public schools. As an artist, his music is genre-defying and experimental, combining classical and hip-hop. … On top of his many musical endeavors, Arthur is engaged in on-the-ground social justice work in West Louisville, including the Parkland neighborhood where he grew up.” – PBS NewsHour (KET)

“Community music has a growing programme of scholarship and international projects. As a musical practice that emphasises people, participation, places, inclusivity, and diversity, those that work in the field do so across an increasing array of contexts and environments. … As a cultural and social imperative in the construction of human relationships, the analysis of hospitality through the field of community music contributes to the discourse of rethinking community as an interdisciplinary concept.” – Rethinking Community through Transdisciplinary Research

“Sahba Aminikia is an Iranian-American composer, pianist, and educator born in post-revolutionary wartime in Iran. Aminikia first explored immersive, visceral music in a successful performance career before pivoting to artistic direction of Flying Carpet Festival, an international music festival serving refugee children in Turkey.” – I Care If You Listen

“It’s no secret that classical music has a diversity problem. Major symphony orchestras around the country are primarily white, as are their audiences. And as these audiences continue to shrink, more conservatories and orchestras are getting serious about becoming as diverse as the cities they serve.” – WKSU (Kent, Ohio)

“‘We’re actually modeling what we believe the musical world should be like,’ says [cellst Élise] Sharp. ‘And even [in] the people that work with us on our graphic design and our production in the studio, we try to partner with people who look like us and who have a similar message as us.’ This push for diversity goes beyond race. Reaching a wider audience also means acting as a bridge between classical and mainstream pop.” – DCist

“The Cleveland Institute of Music has received a $150,000 grant from the Sphinx Organization, to launch an initiative for graduate students of African American and Latin descent, young professionals and junior faculty.” – The Strad

“Currently Joachim is riding a wave of success for her album Fanm d’Ayiti (Women of Haiti), which The New York Times called ‘an evening-length artistic exploration of matriarchy, drawing Haitian folk and popular traditions into the world of contemporary classical music.’ The reverse could also be said, that contemporary classical music is being drawn into Haitian folk and popular traditions. Either way, it is a cross-pollination and celebration that prompted Steve Smith of The New Yorker to write, ‘No more joyous chamber-music collection has arrived this year.'” – San Francisco Classical Voice

“In the 70-minute chamber opera Mila, Hong Kong playwright Candace Chong Mui Ngam has come together with composer Eli Marshall to tell the story of a Filipina woman named Mila who has traveled far from home to work as one of the thousands of so-called ‘domestic helpers,’ sometimes referred to as FDWs (foreign domestic workers).” – San Francisco Classical Voice

“I’m a politically minded person and have spent a lot of time thinking about poverty and income inequality. The idea of tackling this subject matter in the context of a symphony orchestra, which optically tends to be perceived as an institution that caters to people of privilege … I didn’t know exactly how to attack it. What I did was to treat homelessness and housing insecurity as symptoms of broader systemic inequality, and to try to implicate the audience in the story that I was telling and to really kind of hold their feet to the fire.” – Portland Mercury

“Black opera singers are now cast in a wide range of roles and great operas written by black composers have gained more recognition. Yet, Porgy and Bess has maintained its cultural status as the pinnacle of black opera, despite being written by and composed by white men and women — George and Ira Gershwin and Dubose and Dorthy Heyward. Dr. Jason Oby, the chair of the Department of Music at Texas Southern University and the artistic director for the Houston Ebony Opera Guild, joined The Takeaway to discuss Porgy and Bess and the legacy of black opera singers and composers.” (audio) – WNYC Studios

“Teaching middle school choral music in a culturally diverse middle school in Hawaii resulted in new knowledge about welcoming the challenges posed by diversity to the benefit of both students and educator. Concise strategies described in this article are applicable to any music program.” – Music Educators Journal

“This article reports on the impact of music education for students in a secondary school in Victoria, Australia. Socially inclusive practices were a focus of the study as the school has a high percentage of young people with a refugee background. … Key findings from this case study research indicated that a music classroom which fostered socially inclusive practices resulted in a positive transcultural learning space. This research raises important questions about the critical role of music education and the arts in contemporary and culturally diverse school contexts.” – Research Studies in Music Education

“Columbus conductor and clarinetist Antoine Clark wants women musicians and musicians of diverse racial and ethnic backgrounds to be heard. Clark is bringing his vision to the McConnell Arts Center Chamber Orchestra’s (MACCO) 2019-20 Masterworks series, Amplified: Do More than Listen, Hear Our Voices. The focus of the series’ three concerts – Voices Past and Present, Voices of Hope and Voices of Freedom – will be on works by women composers and composers of color, all presented alongside works by major composers of the classical music canon.” – WOSU (Columbus, Ohio)

“New York City’s On Site Opera, known for staging works in non-traditional spaces, is presenting Amahl and the Night Visitors next month inside the Holy Apostles Soup Kitchen, which serves lunch to the homeless every weekday. … Choreographer Winston A. Benons Jr. … was brought on by On Site’s director Eric Einhorn to reenvision the opera’s ‘ballet’ section where townspeople perform for the three kings. It traditionally features either classical ballet or a European folk dance, but Einhorn wanted a new take. So Benons mined his background in both Afro-diasporic dance (particularly from Cuba, Haiti and Brazil) and modern forms, but also added something more.” – Dance Magazine

“Education discourse has recently turned toward resilience and grit. This article critiques the neoliberalism embedded in resilience education and the manner in which a resilience focus encourages docility, adaptation and vulnerability in youth in response to oppressive conditions rather than addressing oppression directly. As a site of resilience for marginalised youth, music is implicated in resilience education’s failure to address systemic oppression.” – Music Education Research

“Led by four jazz musicians, Tribe’s members put out their own records; published a widely influential, Afrocentric magazine with a circulation reaching 25,000; organized concerts, often in tandem with dancers and theater performers; and taught music to local children. In the process, it helped define a path forward for Detroit’s arts community as the revolutionary spirit of the 1960s gave way to an uncertain future in a city ravaged by postindustrial decline.” – The New York Times