It’s likely that if you went through the public education system, you’ve encountered a music class at some point. Be it a general music class, AP/IB Music Theory, or one of the many music ensembles and extracurriculars, it’s hard to get through school without being exposed to music education at some point.
In a society that is growing ever more diverse and inclusive, it is becoming more and more apparent where our weaknesses are designed in the system. Perhaps one of the greatest weaknesses of diversity and social inclusion is classical music. Coming from a high school where the caucasian population was the minority, I couldn’t help but notice that almost the entirety of my band class was white. In fact, the music we were performing was white. Enrolled now in college for a music degree, I see the same demographic layout. Why is this?
Well, when we talk about professional art music (that is, everything not associated with pop-culture), we are usually talking about classical music — a genre which is almost entirely made up of Eastern European compositions. However, schools do not exist in a vacuum; they are a mirror of society’s values and culture. Take a look at the following statistic about the diversity among professional orchestras.
The Institute for Composer Diversity has evaluated more than 120 professional orchestra seasons in 2019–2020 and found the following demographics about the music that they performed:
Performances of Works by
Women Composers: 309 (8%)
Deceased Women Composers: 60 (1.5%)
Composers from Underrepresented
Racial, Ethnic, & Cultural
Heritages: 224 (6%)
Underrepresented
Composers: 458 (11%)
All Living Composers: 634 (16%)*Sourced from https://www.composerdiversity.com/orchestra-seasons
If this is what the professional world looks like in terms of diversity, it is no wonder that schools are also part of systemic lack of representation by minority composers. But in order to make this change, there are several things we must acknowledge first…
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Classical Music is Not the Enemy
Now hear me out about this, while the connotation of “classical” music does bring about images of powdered wigs and names like Beethoven, Mozart, and Bach; they do not make up the totality of what this genre has to offer. There are many minority composers both on the orchestral side (Astor Piazzolla, Edward “Duke” Ellington, William Grant Still, Jennifer Higdon) as well as the band side (Caroline Shaw, William Owens, Bernard Adam Ferrero). We simply need to put more effort into hunting down the works and performing them.
This also isn’t to say that performing the classical canon by the Eastern European composers is bad; in fact, it’s just the opposite. However, the problem arises when we are singularly programming works of one ethnicity or racial background. I don’t know how many band concerts I’ve been to that have included a work by Frank Ticheli, John Mackey, Percy Grainger, and Bach all in one program. None of these composers are bad composers and we should play their music, but what does it tell our students and our audience when our concerts only feature white-male composers (living or dead)? Even if it is a subconscious message, it will still project a certain value.
I am a strong proponent of classical music. I’m also a saxophonist, which means that a large amount of my classical repertoire are post-1875. As a performer, I am fortunate to have lots of great works written by a myriad of composers at my fingertips. Other, older instruments, such as the flute and violin, are not so lucky. They could perform Eastern-European music for the rest of their lives if left to their own devices. What this means is that we must be cognizant about what we are both digesting as both music listeners and performers as well as sharing with others as teachers, parents, and friends.
All must is great music and worthy of listening and we do not need to throw classical music out the window or condemn. We simply need to expand our listening periphery.
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Diversity for the Sake of Diversity is Not a Solution
Including works from the likes of Omar Thomas or Nancy Galbraith into your program is great, but we must be conscious of why we are doing it. The same can be said of our consumption of music as listeners. Are we streaming/buying this music by a minority composer simply to say that we are diverse or are we truly digging into the musical content of these pieces?
One of my great mentors (who is African-American) sums it up quite nicely. He says,
“I do not wish to be labeled as a great, black band director or conductor. I want to be remembered as a great conductor who also happens to be black.”
I believe this distinction is really important in both what we expose our students and children to as well as what we consume ourselves. Diversifying the music in our schools does nothing if it’s simply to add diversity. If anything, it’s a reductionist perspective on these individuals’ music. We must seek to teach and expose the youth to great music. And if it happens to be of a minority composer, then great! If not, that’s okay, but I would encourage you to question your searching. Are you looking beyond the typical music publishers (JW Pepper, Hal Leonard, Sheet Music Plus) and actively seeking out good quality music of diverse composers?
Because of the system that’s been created for centuries, it will be more difficult to find. Therefore, we must chase the goal of diversity that much more rigorously.
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Our Schools Must Be a Reflection of Our Students
Here is data provided by the National Center for Education Statistics about the demographic makeup of our schools. This is the percentage distribution of public school students enrolled in prekindergarten through 12th grade, by race/ethnicity: Fall 2000, fall 2015, and fall 2027.
Our schools have become more diverse and we expect them to do the same. If the professional music world falls behind, schools must be the place where we pick up the slack. We can institute systematic change in the world by exposing our students to music that wouldn’t otherwise have the opportunity of experiencing. This in turn opens the door for opportunities and possibilities they wouldn’t have had otherwise.
This goes back to the classic window and the mirror example in education: when we teach, we must both be a mirror of what society currently is and where we have come from, as well as a window into the possibility of what could be.
If we do not provide both, we perpetuate a system of exclusivity, inequality, and unfairness.
There is much we can all do no matter what role we fill in the musical society. As teachers, we can work actively to promote diversity to our students through our repertoire selection. As parents, we can advocate to our schools and promote these values at home. And as consumers of music, we can all start thinking more critically of the concerts we are attending, music we are streaming, and composers we are supporting.
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Previously published on “Equality Includes You”, a Medium publication.
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Photo credit: Spencer Imbrock on Unsplash