Diversifying the Symphony

Thanks to Aaron for his helpful response to my Day 2 post. I want to make sure that the issues I raised in my statement are not misrepresented because of a lack of clarity on my part.

The “war story” I cited was not meant to compare traditional Mexican music to symphonic music (though in my anecdote the music in question, though traditional, actually was symphonic music), but to convey my belief that programming music by black/Hispanics because we think blacks/Hispanics are more likely to relate to it sells short the intellectual capacity of these ethnic groups. This also relates to my comment regarding the enthusiastic response that all audiences tend to give to the 1812 Overture (or Beethoven’s 5th/Ravel’s Bolero/insert your own favorite classical blockbuster here, cannons or no.) I firmly believe that Asian/Hispanic/black people, on the whole come to symphonic concerts to hear great music. Period.

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the vetting processes and people (i.e., conductors, patrons, etc.) that would evaluate the quality of new scores in the 19th century and support them do not seem to exist in the same degree today for minority composers.

I don’t have data to challenge this assertion. I will say that I don’t think the ASOL survey of composers by race accurately paints the whole picture. A more interesting survey would show the ratio of new symphonic music being programmed by orchestras, white-male to non-white-male. If my personal experience is any indication, women/Asian/black/Hispanic composers are getting more and more of their music programmed all the time and a lot of it is terrific. I suspect these groups still make up a relatively small ratio of active composers but they are definitely catching up fast. Incidentally, I think now is the best time ever to be a composer of any race. The internet enables one to disseminate music worldwide at the click of a finger, and computer software allows composers to realize their music and present it to would-be performers in a way that composers of previous ages would marvel at. And there are, without question, exponentially more orchestras, chamber ensembles, opera companies, music schools, composer forums, websites, etc. for composers of all races and genders to present their music then there ever were in the supposed heyday of classical music (whenever that was).

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Programming diverse composers is not insulting to people; what is insulting is how much opportunity they are given to hear it, and how quickly we expect acceptance when it has taken orchestras so long themselves to.

Let me be clear: Promoting diversity in programming is HIGHLY DESIRABLE. No one on this forum disputes this and I took great pains in my piece to make that clear. What is HIGHLY UNDESIRABLE is selecting programs to conform to racial statistics, especially when the quality of the music is not always up to snuff.

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A knee-jerk reaction based on one season’s tickets sales to concerts of new music is quite an unmusical way to evaluate and support quality work. It takes time and courage. Thinking that the public would believe that orchestras are committed to this long-term because of one season is foolish.

For the record, the San Antonio Symphony’s experiment in targeted programming was not a one year lark but a major, long-term undertaking. Unfortunately, the experiment was interrupted by a bankruptcy in 2003. Declining annual ticket sales were only one factor among many in the orchestra’s failure. But the city’s newspaper printed letter after letter in which former subscribers said that they had abandoned the symphony because they felt the programming was ignoring their tastes. I’m happy to say that the San Antonio Symphony has resurrected and is steadily making its way back. And we are still very committed to diverse, quality programming on both subscription and community concerts. But we learned the hard way that, in our community, there has to be a careful balance of new, challenging works and familiar works if we expect audiences to come back concert after concert.

By the way, hip-hop music for orchestra sounds like an idea that’s time has come!