How To Fight Racism With a Viola

The oboe’s A sounds. The winds tune, followed by the brass and strings. The conductor walks on stage to applause. He raises his baton. The audience watches eighty musicians lift their instruments and prepare to play. But what the audience doesn’t see is the hours of rehearsal that led to this concert. They don’t see the years of rigorous training each musician has undertaken to arrive at this moment. And they don’t see the systemic barriers Black musicians face that lead to very few of them being on this stage.

Diversity and inclusion gets a lot of talk these days—for good reason. For most of recorded history, BIPOC have been barred from the same opportunities as white musicians. In his book Understanding White Privilege, Francis Kendall defines privilege as “having greater access to power and resources than people of color (in the same situation) do.” This inequality has devastating consequences: in America today, Black households hold only one eighth of the wealth that white households do. When instruments, private lessons, and youth orchestra fees cost thousands of dollars, this means a lack of resources for young Black string players. As a result, adolescent and adult musicians see few role models of color on the classical stage. Black musicians are uniquely underrepresented in classical music.

It’s great that we’re finally talking about equality. But just talking isn’t enough. 

Lack of diversity in classical music wasn’t caused by one person. And it’s going to take all of us to dismantle it. Here’s how we can all do our part:

Hire your Black colleagues, and make sure they are included and welcomed.

Making sure Black musicians and musicians of color are not only hired, but included and welcomed is an obvious first step to increasing diversity in classical music. Reach out to new musicians of color. Build relationships. Hire them for wedding gigs or to teach sectionals at your school. Recommend them to contractors for orchestras. Black musicians deserve to be everywhere classical music is created.

Call out racism when you see it.

We’ve all heard it: the slightly racist joke, the off-hand remark that a musician or composer of color is only featured on the program or granted a scholarship due to the color of their skin. 

Here’s the thing: slightly racist is no different than slightly out-of-tune. It’s 100% wrong.

It isn’t ok to diminish the achievements of Black musicians. It isn’t ok to create more barriers when so many already exist. 

You can learn how to be anti-racist in the same way you can learn to play a concerto. Not sure how to respond to a racist joke? Check out these guides for stopping “casual racism” in its tracks.

Calling out racist comments when you hear them isn’t always easy. But neither is a career in music. That something is difficult is no reason not to do it.

Promote Black composers so they get the attention they deserve.

Bach. Mozart. Beethoven. So much of our musical language has been shaped by white men. Not because they were the only ones with good ideas. But because their voices are the only ones that were allowed to be heard.

From Performance Today’s “Classical Woman of the Year” Valerie Coleman to classically trained hip-hop duo Black Violin, we are now seeing an unprecedented number of Black performers and composers take the stage. But throughout most of classical music history, Black musicians were not given a voice. 

We can change that.

Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, who was dubbed the “African Mahler” by turn of the century New Yorkers. Margaret Bonds, who created classical arrangements out of African-American spirituals and collaborated with Langston Hughes. Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint-Georges, of whom Mozart was reportedly jealous. Florence Price, the first Black American to have her work played by a major orchestra. Scott Joplin, whose work fused ragtime and classical music. 

Learn their names. Program their music.

Support organizations that work towards change.

Every musician who’s played in an orchestra knows the power of working together. When we stick together and focus our energy on a cause, we are an unstoppable force.

Let’s publicize, send students to, play benefit concerts for, and do everything else we can to support organizations that work to create more opportunities for Black musicians. Like the Sphinx Organization, whose mission is “to create a pipeline that develops and supports diversity and inclusion in classical music at every level.” Or Rachel Barton Pine’s Music by Black Composers Project, which makes works by Black composers accessible to students. Or the Composers Diversity Collective, which “offers education and mentorship to emerging composers in underserved communities.” Or Chamber Music America, which offers grants and assistance to small ensembles and is an example of an organization with a diverse board of directors. Let’s offer after school music ed for underserved communities. Let them know classical music is for them, too.

Any classical musician can differentiate between the light, airy spiccato of Mozart and the heavy dissonance of Shostakovich. We know a Russian Romantic era piece when we hear it. But what would a Black American genre of classical music sound like? If we amplify Black voices and create opportunities for underserved Black musicians, we could hear something incredible.

We’ve all felt that electric rush of energy on stage while playing a piece we love with people we care about. The vibrant chromatic runs in a violin concerto, the plaintive melodies of the viola line in a quartet, and the majestic roar of brass in a symphony aren’t just for one type of musician. 

They belong to us all.

Everyone, regardless of skin color, deserves a place on the stage. Let’s do everything in our power to make classical music an inclusive space.