Racial Equity

By Christine Melchert

Students at a New York City middle school couldn’t find a children’s book about Florence Price, a prolific, but often ignored and unknown Black female composer. So, they decided to write their own! This is a remarkable story about how the next generation saw a need and took matters into their own hands to re-write classical musical history to be more inclusive and equitable. The students’ work was promoted by Kate Sheeran (Executive Director of the Kaufman Music Center) who said, “They’re seeing that they can have a voice in shaping who writes history and who tells stories, and that we don’t have to just accept the way music is presented to us or the way music history is presented to us — that they too can shape that. And that, to me, is the most exciting thing.

“We talk about representation in literature all the time,” Shannon Potts, the students’ English teacher, observes. “For kids to be able to become authors and activists in a way, to disrupt the story of the way that classical music is being told. They no longer, as a diverse population, become victims of a largely white society. They control the narrative. They can rewrite it. And this project, in the way it’s been received, really shows them that when they speak up, the world is ready to hear them.”Read and listen about this exciting process here:  
Students write a book about Florence Price

Check you favorite book seller to purchase a copy of the book.

It is still only few days since we had hoped to play our Family Concerts at North High and St. Matthew’s.  So tonight, I want to ask us to particularly consider our collaboration partners in the North High faculty, students, and neighborhood.

In our time working with North High, we have learned how stretched their faculty and staff are in working to meet the needs of their students in very challenging circumstances.  This year, there is a new Principal, Mauri Friestleben.  You may remember Principal Friestleben and several of her colleagues on the local news a couple of months back.  They were speaking about the intense challenge of getting the students to and from the buses and their homes safely, and keeping the immediate surroundings of their schools secure.

Last week, one of those students, DeShaun Hill, 15 years old, lost his life to apparently random violence.  He was waiting at a bus stop when he was shot.  A suspect has been arrested, but to my knowledge, there is no real idea of what might have behind the shooting.  What I do know is that DeShaun and several other North Students were waiting to take the bus downtown to a student gathering to recognize Amir Locke.  Amir, in turn, is the man who was shot in the apartments across from Orchestra Hall a few days earlier during a “no knock” police entry.

If we had been able to play at North on January 30, DeShaun might well have been in our audience.  In a different year without the pandemic challenges, he might even have interacted or collaborated with us.  What we now know is that when we do get to return to North, DeShaun will not be with us.

by Kris Kautzman As the MSO seeks new ways to support artists of color in classical music, we’ve learned about and gotten connected to Sphinx, an amazing national arts and social justice organization based in Detroit. Now in their 25th year, Sphinx focuses on increasing representation of Black and Latinx artists in classical music and recognizing excellence through programs that serve beginner students to seasoned classical music professionals, as well as cultural entrepreneurs and administrators. The organization is led by Afa S. Dworkin, its long-time Artistic Director, who has been with the organization since its inception.  This season the MSO has formalized our relationship with Sphinx by joining their coalition of organizations who provide audition support to artists of color. Known as the National Alliance for Audition Support (NAAS), the program offers Black and Latinx musicians a customized combination of mentoring, audition preparation, financial support, and audition previews, and you can learn more here: https://www.sphinxmusic.org/national-alliance-for-audition-support As part of NAAS, the MSO is available to provide transportation to and from auditions when people are in town for auditions with the Minnesota Orchestra and the SPCO (both of which are also members of NAAS). MSO Musicians, please reach out to Jon Lewis if you’d like to be a volunteer for this program! In coming weeks and months we look forward to sharing more about Sphinx – and our connections to the important work they do in the orchestral community!

From Christine Melchert, MSO cellist This week we were fortunate to rehearse “African Suite: IV. Dance Negre” by Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, a composer many of us were unfamiliar with.  Here are some fun facts about him: – His mother named him after the famous English poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge – His first commission came via Edward Elgar – His most famous work is “Hiawatha’s Wedding Feast” based on a poem by Longfellow – He was influenced by his friendship with African American poet Paul Laurence Dunbar to concentrate on his African heritage in his music – He was 23 years old when he wrote “Danse Negre” (the 4th and most familiar movement of “African Suite which highlights elements of the African experience) – He was hugely popular in the United States 110 years ago and inspired leading figures in the early civil rights movement – In 1904, he was the first black man to conduct a white orchestra in America – You can watch a 2 hour documentary on YouTube about  Samuel Coleridge-Taylor and His Music in America (1900-1912) – Chineke! Orchestra has made more of his music familiar like this Ballade for Orchestra Opus 33 I highly recommend this in-depth and fascinating presentation about Samuel Coleridge-Taylor and the Musical Fight for Civil Rights You can also listen here to Samuel Coleridge-Taylor’s All Time Best Works.