In a Saturday (2/22) opinion column in the Detroit Free Press, Leonard Slatkin, music director of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, writes that women’s roles in the classical music industry have “improved dramatically over the past 25 years” but “when it comes to the African-American sector of the classical music workplace … there remain but a few who are in the forefront of the industry…. Over time, the contributions of African-Americans profoundly changed the American musical landscape and paved the way for others. Well before such artists as André Watts, Henry Jay Lewis, William Grant Still, James DePreist and Thomas Wilkins, however, black musicians were forging paths in all parts of the world, albeit in small numbers…. Today, we can find more and more African-American musicians working in the classical music arena.… American conservatories continue to be beacons of inclusiveness, and one can see diversity in action at the Juilliard School in New York, Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia or Colburn School in Los Angeles.… It is disheartening to constantly read and hear about the tension and discrimination that often make us feel as if we are still living in the 1960s.… America is an inclusive society…. This means making great music available to all, as both listeners and participants.”
Posted February 24, 2014
