In an entry posted on Wednesday (6/26) on ArtsJournal.com, Greg Sandow writes, “ ‘I don’t know many other art forms where applause is considered a negative.’ That was a one-liner fired off by Bo Young Lee, a diversity consultant, at a League of American Orchestras conference session called ‘Developing Cross-Cultural Competency.’ Of course she was talking about the rules of classical music applause. And how, if we follow them, we actually suppress the excitement of our audience. Lee … speaks out, saying difficult things in cheerful plain English. For instance this: ‘If you want to reach out to a Latino audience, maybe you’ll play Latin American composers. But if you do it just once, you’re pandering.’ … Lee’s bottom line was simple but profound. If we want people who aren’t white to go in any large numbers to classical concerts, we have to diversify the culture those concerts display.… This is a hard lesson for classical music people to learn, especially those of us who may have imagined that our art … transcends culture, class, and ethnicity.” At the League’s 2013 Conference, Sandow gave a session that looked ahead to possible futures for orchestras. Read League President and CEO Jesse Rosen’s interview with Bo Young Lee in the Spring issue of Symphony.
Posted June 28, 2013
