In Wednesday’s (3/23) Palos Verdes Peninsula News (California), Ed Pilolla writes, “Two groups of musicians with a shared passion will join together for a Good Friday performance at the Rolling Hills United Methodist Church. The RHUMC Chancel Choir, which includes about 50 white folks with an average age in the mid-60s, will combine with about 30 African-American members of the Inner City Youth Orchestra of Los Angeles whose average age is in the early 20s.” Repertoire included Mendelssohn’s setting of Psalm 42, Mark Hayes’s “Requiem,” and the traditional spiritual “Were You There.” “ ‘The issue of diversity in the arts is in the forefront of national conversations,’ said Charles Dickerson, who has served as director of music at RHUMC since 2005…. The Andrew Mellon Foundation and the League of American Orchestras recently gathered about 40 leaders from around the country to discuss strategies to increase the numbers of minorities in American orchestras…. The theme of the League’s upcoming national conference is The Richness of Difference, and it will feature symposia on this subject. Late last year, the DeVos Institute of Arts Management at the University of Maryland issued … ‘Diversity in the Arts,’ [a report that] investigated the challenges facing organizations of color.”
Posted March 28, 2016
