Diversifying the Symphony

In reading the opening statements of my fellow panelists, I think it’s interesting to note that the symphony musicians seem to be much cooler to the idea of adding affirmative action to the audition process than those panelists not currently in orchestras. Let’s not forget that winning a job in a full-time orchestra is one of the most difficult undertakings imaginable, regardless of race or any other variable. I think that musicians that have gone through the audition wringer and emerged with one of these highly coveted positions want to make sure that the process remains fair and unbiased toward all musicians. It’s also worth mentioning that the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, which uses a screen through it’s entire audition process, has recently appointed African-Americans to two of its most important positions: Billy Hunter (principal trumpet) and Anthony McGill (principal clarinet). McGill filled the position left vacant by the Puerto Rican clarinetist Ricardo Morales, who moved on to the principal chair of the Philadelphia Orchestra. There is indeed a talented pool of black and Hispanic musicians, and they are going to find their way to high profile orchestra chairs regardless of affirmative action measures.

One of Aaron Dworkin’s points that caught my attention was the complaint that Latino and African-American composers were grossly under-represented in the programming of American orchestras. Well, about 20 years ago, the San Antonio Symphony set out to change that. In an attempt to reach out to San Antonio’s massive Hispanic population, heroic efforts were made to add an impressive number of Hispanic composers to the slate of programming. The San Antonio Symphony was nationally recognized for its efforts and received many grants and accolades for its endeavors. This excerpt is from the orchestra’s history webpage:

“At the January 1994 meeting of the American Symphony Orchestra League, the San Antonio Symphony was unanimously hailed as a model of inclusiveness and community-relevant programming for American orchestras. In 1994, the San Antonio Symphony was named the winner of the first ASCAP/Morton Gould Award for Creative Programming, in recognition of its innovative presentations of traditional and contemporary repertoire. The Symphony went on to win five additional ASCAP awards in subsequent years. The Symphony received two prominent national awards in 1995: the ASCAP Award for Programming of Contemporary Music and the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation “Magic of Music” Grant. The Symphony continued to garner awards throughout the 1990s.”

The result: not only did the San Antonio Symphony fail to attract a substantial new Hispanic audience, many traditional subscribers felt alienated by the symphony’s radical new programming and left the hall in droves. The idea that programming music by black and Hispanic composers will translate into new black and Hispanic audiences is a facile solution that insults the sophistication of these minority groups. We may lament the fact that there are not a proportionate number of minority composers represented in our orchestras’ programming but let’s be realistic. The total number of symphonic pieces by Latino and African-American composers compared to those of white American or European composers is even smaller than the “less than one percent” cited in Mr. Dworkin’s essay. If we reject pieces of dubious quality on both sides of the ratio, does the balance worsen or improve? For better or worse, symphonic music was developed primarily by white, European composers and the core of our repertoire is and forever shall be by white, European composers. Having said this, there is a tremendous amount of high-quality music that has and is being written by non-white composers. These pieces should be programmed on their merits, not as token black/Latino pieces to improve the desired ratio. If a conductor chooses to highlight an exceptional Hispanic or African-American composer that he or she feels has been neglected, I think audiences of all colors will benefit. If we try to “fix” programming to reflect racial statistics at the expense of the music our audience already loves, everyone loses.

Above all, programming should never be used to target a certain demographic. To illustrate this I’d like to relate a famous “war story” from a performance the San Antonio Symphony gave in Monterrey, Mexico in the ’80s. The program featured a first half of standard classical repertoire, after which the audience responded with rapturous applause. On the second half, the symphony featured a singer of traditional Mexican music. By the time the performance concluded, the hall was half empty. Symphonic music lovers of all races want and deserve to hear great music, whether the composer is Brahms, Tan Dun, Osvaldo Golijov or Michael Abels. I believe that the quality of our repertoire is the reason why our art form has survived and, in many ways, flourished over the past 300 years (“death of classical music” prophets past and present be damned). Let’s welcome any new contributions to this repertoire without qualifications and let the cream rise to the top.

One point on which Mr. Dworkin and I do agree is the need to physically bring orchestras to parts of the community that might be reluctant to come to it. In my three seasons in San Antonio, this is where we’ve had the most success reaching out to both black and Hispanic audiences. Our off-site concerts in traditionally minority neighborhoods have been some of the most exciting performances we’ve given, especially when we collaborate with artists from these communities. We can begin to tear down cultural stereotypes when we perform music in neutral settings sans tails and bow-ties. And the 1812 Overture will always get a bigger response than the “Mexican Hat Dance” no matter where we play. Will these audiences make the leap of buying a ticket to our subscription concerts downtown? Probably not; but in my opinion, socio-economic factors are a much larger barrier here than race. More on this next time.