“In June, as millions of Americans filled city streets with Black Lives Matter demonstrations and millions more rushed to share their solidarity online, the composer Jessie Montgomery noticed something unusual,” writes Joshua Barone in Saturday’s (10/3) New York Times. “Orchestras across the country … were asking to perform her music…. By the end of this year, her works will have been programmed more than twice as much as they were in 2019. ‘I’m sort of flabbergasted, to be honest with you,’ Ms. Montgomery, who is Black, said…. ‘It’s also happening with my Black colleagues.’ … Now … you’re likely to find music by George Walker, Anthony Davis or Joseph Boulogne, Chevalier de Saint-Georges. Major orchestras like the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Detroit Symphony Orchestra and Seattle Symphony put works by Black composers on their first online programs…. Their sudden ubiquity proves how simple it is to program them…. [Montgomery] said orchestras should be sensitive to the fact that ‘the whole industry is asking a lot of Black artists right now.’ If ensembles want to support composers and performers of color, programming is one way; commissions and residencies are another…. ‘At the end of the day I just want to make music,’ she said.”
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