So I'm going to push back a bit on John for noting [paraphrasing here] "that some feel black people don't feel welcome at the symphony hall, and it feels good to say that." I worked for a symphony orchestra for a few years, and I can say with certainty over the last three years, they (as in many of the black artists, patrons, etc.) DO NOT feel welcome. After the George Floyd thing happened, a lot of orchestras scrambled to virtue signal their support of black people. So much to the point that many of the black artists, staff members and patrons I interacted with felt deeply uncomfortable. It, unfortunately, pushed a lot of people away from the concert hall rather than drawing them in.
And about representation of black artists within classical music, there are some things that can be done, but as Glenn and John say, it can't be at the cost of the artistic excellence demanded of its artists. I personally would love to see poor communities (not necessarily black or brown ones) have better access to a classical music education because I think it gives them the tools they need to pull themselves out of poverty. As you can imagine, people bristle at that concept.
Scott Joplin was a huge advocate for music education and spent much of his time mentoring and teaching younger musicians. Many of his musical ideals came together in an opera called "Treemonisha," which I think would have a hard time getting staged today. Despite the music being by a black composer, it has heavy themes about what Joplin felt the black community *should* do in order to progress. The music is lovely, and it has great mystical elements, but unfortunately in this political climate, it would probably not get staged.
If I understand you correctly, blacks felt more welcome before the effort to make them feel more welcome (because they saw it as unauthentic and condescending virtue signaling from whites). I appreciate that and it must suck to have people judge you based on the color of your skin; kinda like casting whites as white privileged or oppressor.
So I'm going to push back a bit on John for noting [paraphrasing here] "that some feel black people don't feel welcome at the symphony hall, and it feels good to say that." I worked for a symphony orchestra for a few years, and I can say with certainty over the last three years, they (as in many of the black artists, patrons, etc.) DO NOT feel welcome. After the George Floyd thing happened, a lot of orchestras scrambled to virtue signal their support of black people. So much to the point that many of the black artists, staff members and patrons I interacted with felt deeply uncomfortable. It, unfortunately, pushed a lot of people away from the concert hall rather than drawing them in.
And about representation of black artists within classical music, there are some things that can be done, but as Glenn and John say, it can't be at the cost of the artistic excellence demanded of its artists. I personally would love to see poor communities (not necessarily black or brown ones) have better access to a classical music education because I think it gives them the tools they need to pull themselves out of poverty. As you can imagine, people bristle at that concept.
Scott Joplin was a huge advocate for music education and spent much of his time mentoring and teaching younger musicians. Many of his musical ideals came together in an opera called "Treemonisha," which I think would have a hard time getting staged today. Despite the music being by a black composer, it has heavy themes about what Joplin felt the black community *should* do in order to progress. The music is lovely, and it has great mystical elements, but unfortunately in this political climate, it would probably not get staged.
If I understand you correctly, blacks felt more welcome before the effort to make them feel more welcome (because they saw it as unauthentic and condescending virtue signaling from whites). I appreciate that and it must suck to have people judge you based on the color of your skin; kinda like casting whites as white privileged or oppressor.
Yeah, there were a couple of black artists who felt singled out and asked to be left alone. It makes for a negative workplace.