(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . American orchestras erase music from their annual conference [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.'] Date: 2023-06-16 Orchestras have gone woke. Diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) at the cost of “music” will be their downfall. No, not really. But for those who want to pick a culture war fight in this arena, an upcoming music conference provides plenty of fodder. Norman Lebrecht for Slipped Disc: Our hawk-eyed observers at the forthcoming League of American Orchestras conference in Pittsburgh have been ploughing through the LOA’s new strategy document. In 14 closely spaced pages, we found just six references to ‘music’ as a singular noun. It’s not relevant to LOA priorities these days. The LOA’s stated aims are these: – Service: We support our members and those who contribute to the orchestral experience. – Equity, diversity, and inclusion: We embrace equity, diversity, and inclusion as fundamentals, valuing the richness of difference, centering marginalized voices, and creating a supportive environment for all. – Advocacy: We champion the orchestral field and tell the story of its impact. – Leadership: We lead bravely, with transparency, integrity, and authenticity. – Respect: We welcome divergent views, assuming others’ good intent while considering the impact of our words and actions. – Creativity: Inspired by the artistry in our field, we strive for innovation and continuous improvement in our programs, practices, and culture. – Accountability: We set ambitious expectations and we deliver on what we promise. – We work together for a common cause. Music? Nowhere. The comments are predictably depressing. “It appears that all they care about is equity, inclusion, diversity, and social justice issues but not music,” wrote one commenter. Yeah right. Plus the usual canard about how all classical music fans are too old and will soon all die out anyway. And a commenter appropriately using Richard Wagner as his moniker wrote “We are in a mess.” Because, you know, the real Richard Wagner was a tad anti-Semitic. There were a few isolated voices of reason in the comments. Queue the false outrage. I don’t know that there needs to be a discussion of the merits of Beethoven etc. I do know that audience building, fundraising, and community engagement are important issues for orchestras that want to survive and thrive these days. And so strategically thinking about how to advance those goals makes good sense. And besides, all this talk of DEI is probably just lip service that won’t be backed by any concrete action. The member orchestras of the league will continue playing concerts with just a small selection of the greatest hits of a few dead white guys played over and over again and the occasional work by a woman composer just for variety. Here’s a crazy idea: orchestras should seek out local composers, especially women, blacks and Latinos, who have completely given up hope of ever having their music played by a real orchestra or even having any sort of career in orchestral music. Start a conversation with those local composers, ask each of them: “What is your best orchestral composition that is the readiest for orchestral performance?” And then just give them a read-through of those compositions. Choose a few of those and drop them into upcoming concerts. For example, the Abilene Philharmonic, to pick on the first orchestra I see in the league’s membership list, would figure out who are the orchestral composers who live in Abilene who maybe are working in construction or medicine or non-musical fields like that, and start a conversation that leads to those composers living in Abilene having their music played by the Abilene Philharmonic. Not some damn contest where some gutless committee in New York makes the safe choices of white and Asian composers who were going to get their big breaks soon anyway, interspersing one black or Latino composer once in a while just for the sake of virtue signaling. Is a black or Latino composer from Abilene ever going to win a New York contest? Probably not. But the orchestras in New York should feel an obligation to reach out to composers living in New York, and let the Abilene Philharmonic worry about composers living in Abilene. I think my crazy suggestion would go a lot farther towards the league’s stated ideals. Lip service is much easier, though, and the criticism from a few racist commenters on Slipped Disc will roll off their backs. [END] --- [1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/6/16/2175811/-American-orchestras-erase-music-from-their-annual-conference Published and (C) by Daily Kos Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/