'The symphony is like a big ship, and it takes a while to turn it around.'
[...] Arts groups must reflect their communities, or their very existence is in peril, experts say. The seven-county region is 13 percent African-American, 2 percent Hispanic and 2 percent Asian, based on 2005 U.S. Census Bureau figures. The city, home of Music Hall, is 46 percent black."Part of the issue is the pool of people of color trying to get into orchestras has been very small," says Henry Fogel, president and CEO of the American Symphony Orchestra League. "In the 18 years I managed the Chicago Symphony (1985-2003), for auditions that attracted 150 or more applicants, the number of African-Americans was between 0 and 2."
The musicians are the most visible representation of the Cincinnati Symphony, one of the nation's top 25 big-budget orchestras. Seven years ago, the 112-year-old orchestra hired its third African-American.
It's not alone. Nationwide, blacks and Latinos comprise just 4 percent of orchestras. Scores of highly trained musicians compete for few spots. [...]
| Those paragraphs caught my eye in Janelle Gelfand's Cincinnati Enquirer article "Lack of color at the classics," but please don't stop there.
posted in articles on May 14, 2007 6:55 AM | t (0)
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