Racial Equity

In the coming weeks we will present an article and a listening feature to further investigate and learn about systemic racism and classical music. We will present this entry next week as well to allow for adequate time to read and listen.

Have you ever wondered why American classical music is so white? This article delves into the history of “a series of missed opportunities” to have African American composers’ expressive music take root in America’s classical music. In 1890 Antonín Dvořák’s claimed that “Negro melodies” would be the future of American music. So, why weren’t they?

https://www.npr.org/sections/deceptivecadence/2019/09/20/762514169/why-is-american-classical-music-so-white

This article features William Dawson’s Negro Folk Symphony premiered by the Philadelphia Orchestra with conductor Leopold Stokowski in 1934 at Carnegie Hall. Listen to it in the article or here and ask why this became an undervalued work in the classical music world.

In reading about William L. Dawson, notice that the St. Olaf Choir produced an album of his spirituals in 1997!

https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=CHsKUjxOTz4&list=OLAK5uy_niZS1c-ByE2aoDdWJ2EjkFpxkJhNRft_0

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_L._Dawson_(composer)

When the MSO Racial Equity committee started work last summer, one of the first things we did was watch, and listen to, several discussions among Black musicians who are working in the Western Classical Music world. Hearing directly from these musicians was very instructive for me. They share so much common experience with me in terms of musical involvement; and they also convey experiences that were really outside of my awareness before. Discussions range from long-term experiences, to thoughts about our current historical moment. One of my favorites is this group discussion from musicians participating in the Austin Chamber Music festival:

This week we’ll be reading “The Stubborn Classism of Classical Music,” a thoughtful article by Robert Jackson Wood that traces the history of classical music performances, how they evolved into elitist events, and how that lingering elitism makes classical music less accessible to families who earn less than the median American income — especially families of color.

https://newrepublic.com/article/160469/insidious-classism-classical-music