“A festival in South Carolina is trying to change the color of classical music,” reports Lee Cowan at cbsnews.com on Tuesday (12/29). “Maestro Marlon Daniel conducts not only the orchestra, but the entire festival called the Colour of Music, now in its third year. ‘You know a lot of musicians of color get pigeon-holed into jazz and hip-hop and all these things. It’s a big stereotype,’ said [Daniel]. ‘A lot of people think there are not any musicians of color out there doing classical music, when there actually are, in reality, tons of us.’ Clarinetist Robert Davis says in most symphonies he sticks out as a black classical artist, but not here.’ ” The Charleston-based festival also highlights such black classical composers as Adolphus Hailstork, and recently performed his Church Street Serenade, inspired by the slaying of nine members of the Emanuel African Methodist Church in Charleston. Colour of Music founder Lee Pringle “hopes the festival will help diversify other orchestras. ‘I think that most orchestras want to change, they just don’t know how to change,’ said Pringle.” The festival was profiled in a Spring 2015 Symphony article about startup orchestras and festivals.
Posted January 4, 2016
