“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

“As a conductor, Kim Diehnelt has to do a lot of schmoozing and interacting with people. She was so uncomfortable with that, she considered hanging up her baton. Then four years ago, she was diagnosed with autism and depression. … Rather than hang up her baton, Diehnelt has found the right outlet for her musical passion. She is the new conductor for the Me2/Orchestra in Burlington, founded in 2011 for musicians with mental illness and those who support them. She auditioned successfully for the orchestra less than two weeks after a double mastectomy and will debut with Me2/ on Nov. 21 in Burlington.” – Burlington (Vt.) Free Press

“The trauma of her assault is the subject of [soprano Lucy] Dhegrae’s four-concert Processing Series, which opens on Saturday at National Sawdust in Brooklyn. The series attempts to shed light on the complex relationship between mind and body. At the core of each concert is a new work written for Ms. Dhegrae that is intended to be both about healing and actively therapeutic for the performer.” – The New York Times

“[POWER Lunch host Ntokozo Mazibuko] speaks to entrepreneur Ofentse Pitse, the first young black woman to own and conduct an all-black orchestra [in South Africa].” (audio) – POWER Lunch (South Africa)

“‘Historically speaking, it’s a man on the podium leading an orchestra,’ said Lisa Bury, Dallas Opera’s chief advancement and strategy officer. ‘There have been women, and very successful women, but the vast majority have been male, and in an era, i.e. the 21st century, it’s time as an industry to collectively improve the ratio and work together to achieve gender parity at the podium.’ That’s why Dallas Opera founded the Linda and Mitch Hart Institute for Women Conductors, a two-week residency for about a half dozen conductors and, now, administrators, which culminates in a concert attended by members of the public as well as officials, agents and managers.” – ABC News

“‘Black Monastic [is] a performance program examining the history of black sound and how it is present in today’s contemporary music. ‘Black Monastic’ was created by celebrated local artist Theaster Gates and the Rebuild Foundation for the Red Bull Music Festival, running through the end of November. Extending the Rebuild Foundation’s practice of preserving black art, music, culture, and physical spaces, ‘Black Monastic’ will also feature additional celebrated local artists like Ben Lamar Gay, Kiara Lanier, and Joshua Abrams.” – Chicago Tribune

“On Friday, October 11th, 2019, the Sphinx Virtuosi string orchestra concluded their annual United States tour at Carnegie Hall with a program entitled ‘For Justice and Peace.’ Six hours later, Atatiana Jefferson was murdered by Fort Worth Texas police without warning inside her home while playing video games with her 8-year-old nephew. The concert had included commentary on gun violence to black bodies, an elegy for a murdered black man whose case shifted UK criminal justice, two musical reminders of the 400th anniversary of slavery’s start in the United States, and some Bartok and Schubert in their local police and national military contexts.” – I Care If You Listen

“‘The [Every Voice] project, in a way, seeks to kind of un-straightwash and un-whitewash music history, especially in the classical sphere,’ said [countertenor Reginald] Mobley, a native of Florida for whom activism and music frequently mix. … Each concert focuses on a few groups within the community; this year, music by black and Jewish composers will be performed by members of the [Handel & Haydn Society] Orchestra and Chorus and a youth chorus from the H&H Vocal Arts Program.” – The Boston Globe

“On Thursday, October 24, 2019, the Afro Yaqui Music Collective took the stage on Pittsburgh’s North Side for an evening of jazz-fusion fueled activism in the name of unjustly forgotten or silenced voices–in particular, that of Puerto Rican historian, writer, and civil rights activist Aruturo Alfonso Schomburg.” – I Care If You Listen

“[Ann Hobson] Pilot played with the Boston Symphony Orchestra for four decades before retiring from the orchestra in 2009. She is one of four African-American musicians who broke the color barrier with symphonies in the 1960s.” – The Albany (Ga.) Herald