“The Mississippi Symphony Orchestra wants to be in tune with diversity on its governing board, on stage and among its audience members,” writes Nell Luter Floyd in Wednesday’s (7/21) Northside Sun (Jackson, MS). “About a year ago, leaders of the orchestra … established a Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) Committee to advance such efforts. The commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion came in the wake of the League of American Orchestras’ acknowledgment of and responsibility for systemic discrimination in 2020 and its promise to advance work in diversity, equity and inclusion and anti-racism efforts…. Said Delores Bolden-Stamps, a member of the MSO Board of Directors and chair of the MSO DEI Committee, ‘The League of American Orchestras took a bold stand on the issues with encouragement to move the needle.’… Because the Mississippi Symphony is ‘strong fiscally’ … and has a talented leadership team at both the board level and management level, it is able to respond to issues of diversity, equity and inclusion, [Music Director Crafton] Beck said… ‘We’re in this for the long haul,’ Bolden-Stamps said…. In January, the Mississippi Symphony Orchestra plans to perform ‘Black American Symphony’ by Nicholas Payton … on the same program as [Dvořák’s] ‘New World Symphony.”
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