Wilkins, the BSO’s conductor for young people’s and family concerts, makes his subscription-season debut this weekend with a program of music by Florence Price, Adolphus Hailstork, Roberto Sierra, and Duke Ellington. Wilkins is aware of the charge of tokenism: “The easy observation would be to say that this is just a night of box-checking so that we can move on. In reality, it is not. It is, in fact, a launch. … And you know what? You gotta start somewhere.” – The Boston Globe
Making Music Programs Accessible To People On The Autism Spectrum: Q&A
Following up on her open letter to fellow musicians and her point-by-point guide to accessibility, autistic violinist Chrysanthe Tan selects a dozen reader questions and offers answers. – NewMusicBox
New Opera Gives Voice To The Forgotten Women Murdered By Jack The Ripper
“Annie Chapman, Catherine Eddowes, Mary Kelly, Polly Nichols and Liz Stride – odds are that these names won’t ring a bell. But Jack the Ripper will. The most notorious killer in this country’s history has had no name for 130 years, but remains more famous than all of his victims. Composer Iain Bell wants to change this. New ENO opera Jack the Ripper: The Women of Whitechapel turns the focus towards the women of the story.” – London Evening Standard
Yo Yo Ma And Deborah Borda: Music As A Force For Social Justice
Ma: “It’s never art for art’s sake, because even if I do it for myself in my head, I have an ideal. I’m actually trying to take something — a construct, a concept, a theory — and then I want to make it visible, I want to make it audible, I want to make it tactile. I want to make it felt.” Borda spoke of the New York Philharmonic’s efforts to engage with social issues, including gender equality. Recognizing that “all the music we play was written by men,” the organization is launching an initiative next year — the 100th anniversary of the 19th Amendment, which gave women the right to vote — to have 19 women write major world premieres for the orchestra. – Harvard Gazette
Afghanistan’s First All-Women Orchestra Is Now Touring Abroad
The ensemble Zohra, named for the ancient Persian goddess of music, was created five years ago for the female students at the Afghanistan National Institute of Music, itself founded only in 2008. “The music performed is a combination of traditional Afghan music and western classical. For instance, their new arrangement of ‘Greensleeves'” — made for its tour of England — “contains attractive new instrumentation probably not envisaged by Ralph Vaughan Williams in 1934.” – BBC
Graham Vick’s Opera Company, Always A Community Affair, Has Brought Refugees Into Its Chorus
“Birmingham Opera Company has traditionally cast its chorus from local volunteers. Now it’s extending a welcome to people fleeing countries such as Sudan. In the past decade, the company has seen 90,000 people take part in its productions.” (video) – BBC
Toronto Symphony Offers Its First Concert Geared For Neurodiverse Audiences
The TSO is calling this and future concerts of this type “Relaxed Performances,” the term already in use for similar events in the UK. With specially designed changes to the concert format, accompanying materials, and the concert hall, “Relaxed Performances are designed specifically for people living with autism spectrum disorders, sensory and communication disorders, learning disabilities, or anyone who wants a more casual concert experience.” – Toronto Symphony Orchestra
A Point-By-Point Guide To Making Concerts More Accessible To People On The Autism Spectrum
Chrysanthe Tan, the autistic violinist who wrote last week’s open letter to other musicians: “Today, I present you with … an organized, actionable reference guide to help you enact a permanent framework for autistic accessibility in your musical efforts. These tips aren’t just for organizations and presenters; they are also for musicians, students, teachers, and other music-adjacent allies. If you are not autistic, consider this required coursework.” – NewMusicBox
The Choirs With No Name (There Are Four Of Them)
Each of them — in London, Liverpool, Birmingham, and Brighton — really is called The Choir With No Name, and they’re all for people who have struggled with homelessness, addiction, and/or mental illness. Melanie Webb checks in with the London group as they prepare for a March 13 performance. – Bachtrack
An Autistic Musician Writes An Open Letter To Her Colleagues
“Allow me to introduce myself: I’m Chrysanthe Tan, a real-life, autistic violinist, composer, and recording artist, and in my near-decade of working in many music spheres, I’ve noticed an unacceptable, overwhelming status quo of autistic inaccessibility. … We are enthusiastic audience members, patrons, and guests. And so it’s time you adapted a permanent framework for improving autistic accessibility in your concerts, rehearsals, and other music organization efforts.” – NewMusicBox
The Benefits Of Young Musicians And Seniors Playing Alongside Each Other
“Intergenerational orchestras boast a unique dynamic: an eight-year old might share a music stand with an octogenarian. These avocational ensembles also foster improved self-confidence, mental sharpness and physical fitness, and wide community participation in orchestral music.” – Symphony Magazine
Who Gets To Be Called A Conductor?
“Every identity comes with inherent biases, assumptions, and privileges to varying degrees. A helpful exercise is to take an identity and think of the immediate mental image that comes to mind when you invoke it. Let’s take ‘conductor.’ … You probably wouldn’t initially think of someone like Lidiya Yankovskaya, the only female music director of a multi-million dollar opera company in the United States. Or of someone like Francisco J. Núñez, founder and director of one of the world’s most accomplished youth choruses, who also happens to be a MacArthur Fellow.” – NewMusicBox
Bracing And Incendiary Questions About The Classical Music World’s New Interest In Florence Price
“Given the longstanding historical exclusion of African American composers, Price’s sudden rise to stardom might raise a few eyebrows. Is the sudden widespread interest in Price’s music a convenient fad? Are predominantly white institutions exploiting her legacy for short-term gain—what Nancy Leong has called ‘racial capitalism’?” – NewMusicBox
What The Buffalo Philharmonic Is Doing To Increase Diversity Among Musicians And Audiences
In addition to performing free concerts for every elementary school student in the city’s public school system every year, the orchestra has a Diversity Council (created in 2016) that provides scholarships to the BPO Summer Studio program, sponsors local competitors and winners in the Sphinx Competition, and offers chamber concerts in local minority-community churches. In addition, “last year, Jaman Dunn was named the BPO’s first-ever assistant conductor and outreach coordinator.” (text and audio) – WBFO (Buffalo)
Opera America And League Of American Orchestras Launch New Diversity/Inclusion Initiatives
Opera America’s IDEA Opera Grant Program (that stands for Inclusion, Diversity, Equity and Access) “will award grants to teams of composers and librettists of color to support and promote the development of new works.” The LAO’s Catalyst Fund “will provide grants to youth and adult orchestras to work with a consultant to create programs and strategies that promote equity, inclusion and diversity.” The CEOs of each organization talk to host Rachel Katz about how the programs will work. (audio) – WWFM
St. Louis Symphony’s Second Chorus Devoted To Music By Black Composers
“With IN UNISON Chorus, orchestra leaders made an effort [beginning] in 1994 to … welcome more African-Americans into the predominantly white world of European classical music. … Its members largely come from about three dozen black churches in and around St. Louis, where SLSO orchestra members also perform recitals throughout the year.” (text and audio) – St. Louis Public Radio
Detroit Symphony Gives Concert Specially Programmed For Deaf Audience
The “Deaf and Loud Symphonic Experience” brought together the DSO with a band and percussionist Evelyn Glennie, rapper Sean Forbes and singer Mandy Harvey, among the world’s most famous deaf musicians. There was a large video component, a drum kit with lights showing the beat, and more than 20 ASL interpreters. “In other words, it’s a multisensory concert designed for both deaf and hearing audience members — an opportunity, organizers say, to show real accessibility and inclusiveness in a musical context.” – Detroit Free Press
Does Voice Dictate Gender In Music?
Elspeth Franks is just one of an increasingly visible number of trans singers in the classical world who are challenging long-accepted notions about the intersection of gender and music. Operatic and choral singers, long segregated into rigid categories by vocal range, tonal qualities, body type and even simply gender, have begun to push back. – San Francisco Chronicle
Rachel Barton Pine’s Project To Diversify Classical Music’s Canon
These four initiatives aim to place black classical composers and much of their previously overlooked music into today’s cultural consciousness. In doing so, the RBP Foundation hopes to inspire black students to begin and continue instrumental training, make the music of black composers available to all people and help change the face of classical music and its canon. – Forbes
LA Philharmonic’s 2020 Season: “All About Community Relevance, Social Justice, Gender Parity”
Throughout the season, the orchestra will explore the humanities, both in its core programming and related events intended to spark dialogue around the social, cultural and political themes in works performed onstage. Its Power to the People Festival, co-curated by artistic and music director Gustavo Dudamel and Herbie Hancock, addresses how music can provide solidarity and give voice in social justice movements. – Los Angeles Times
Florida Department of Corrections Sued Over Making Inmates Pay For Access To Digital Music, Books
“In effect, the Florida Department of Corrections has stolen millions of dollars of digital music and books from the incarcerated people in its custody,” said Dante Trevisani, executive director of FJI. “This was done merely to obtain a more profitable contract at the expense of incarcerated people and their families.” – Tallahassee Democrat
Rising Appalachia: Using Music As A Platform For Change
Chloe Smith: “Like I mentioned earlier, we work to utilize our platform as musicians to help promote social and environmental justice causes with the aim of educating and inspiring positive change. The melting pot is the best flavoring at the end of the day when all these ingredients come together and bring the music out beyond the stage and into the layers of daily life.” – Guitar Girl Magazine
Criminalizing Drill Rappers For Performing Their Work Is Dangerous
“As a letter signed this week by human rights organisations, lawyers, academics and musicians argues, criminalising artists in this way is both unjust and ineffective. It is unjust because it denies the basic freedoms of those who are attempting to creatively, if distastefully, expose their experiences of subsistent life in the bleakest urban pockets of British society. And it will be ineffective at achieving any reduction in violence because it simply does nothing to address its root causes.” – The Guardian
Claim: UK Is Facing A “Crisis” In Music Education
In short, music ed is disappearing from schools, parliament was told. The government “must act quickly to ensure music does not become the preserve of a privileged few”, the report claims and identifies a number of systemic challenges as a way of illustrating the scale of the crisis facing music education in England. – The Stage
Study: How Political Rap Music Has Influenced Feminist Attitudes
According to the authors, “Hip-hop feminists embrace rap music as a culturally relevant and generationally specific art form that elicits social justice, consciousness raising, and political and social activism” and the contradictions of being both feminists and hip-hop fans. Hip-hop feminism advances conversations about the portrayal of black womanhood, coalition building, black gender relations and black women’s empowerment through rap music. This perspective is distinctly different from the early academic writings on women and hip-hop that focused almost exclusively on male domination and misogyny, they wrote. – Georgia State University
USC Study: Percentage Of Women In The Music Business Hasn’t Improved
The study conducted by Dr. Stacy L. Smith found that the number of women working as artists remained stagnant at 17%. Of songwriters, women represented 12.3% of the credits affiliated with the test group of 100 songs — over half did not feature a single female writer. Among producers, women numbered only 2 percent, in line with the previous year. On a brighter note, representation by people of color was up. – Variety
For 100 Years Of Women’s Suffrage, New York Philharmonic Commissions Music (Lots Of It) By Women
“To mark the centennial of the 19th Amendment, which barred states from denying voting rights based on gender, the Philharmonic has commissioned new works by 19 female composers, eight of which will be performed next season. Besides celebrating what Deborah Borda, the orchestra’s president and chief executive officer, called a ‘tectonic shift in American culture,’ the project sends a statement to the classical music field at a moment when female composers still struggle to be heard.” — The New York Times
How Richard White Became A Professional Tuba Player
Only 1.8 percent of U.S. symphony members are African-American. When he was at Peabody, White met with the then-Dean to mull ways to make the institution more diverse and accepting, “because it was weird walking around and not seeing anyone who looks like me. I learned that when you communicate to people what is going on, they will pay attention. They didn’t care that I was only black person in school. I was Richard the tuba player, which is ultimately crazy, because that’s what you want. I’m not sure I want to be Richard the black tuba player. I wanted to be Richard the tuba player.” – The Daily Beast
Study: El Sistema And Music Therapy And Their Roles In Community Empowerment
“The purpose of this study was to comparatively examine the ways in which Communities of Music Therapy and El Sistema programs may address the empowerment needs of individuals and communities facing socioeconomic marginalization and suggest how these two approaches may be able to work synergistically to achieve their shared goals. Its findings reveal many parallels and divergence between El Sistema and CoMT in terms of the role of the music, program structure, social justice goals, outcomes, music education practice, areas of intersection, existing scholarly research, and criticisms each has received.” – Music and Medicine [Academic paper – subscription]
University Of North Carolina: How Opera Can Add To The Awareness Of Social Justice Issues
“We are working on an opera right now called ‘A Good Boy,’ which is about families who have loved ones living on death row,” Marc Callahan, who is responsible for directing the operas on campus, said. He is currently in the process of writing A Good Boy. “So, opera can both be used as a vehicle for social change, but it can also be a release and kind of a way to go into a space and see creativity unfold in front of you on stage,” he said. – Daily Tar Heel