John von Rhein in Chicago Tribune: 'Sphinx looks to change makeup of U.S. orchestras'

[Photo of Aaron P. Dworkin by Bruce Giffin, Detroit Public Television]

Classical Preview By John von Rhein | Chicago Tribune critic October 3, 2008

For decades, professionals in classical music have furrowed their brows over the lack of minority representation in the player rosters of U.S. symphony orchestras. Although minorities have made tremendous strides in many other fields, African-Americans and Latinos make up only 1.7 to 1.8 percent of professional American orchestras, according to the most recent survey by the League of American Orchestras. Rather than wringing its hands over the situation, the Sphinx Organization is addressing the problem directly. 

Gifted young black and Latino musicians are identified through a national instrumental competition that doles out more than $100,000 in prizes and scholarships annually to music schools and opportunities to perform with top American orchestras. The Detroit-based national advocacy group, founded in 1996, also oversees an expanding range of education programs, re-introducing classical music to school curricula in New York, Miami, Atlanta and other cities.

The organization's touring ensemble, the Sphinx Chamber Orchestra, will make its Chicago debut Saturday night at the Harris Theater in Millennium Park, in collaboration with the theater and the Chicago Sinfonietta, another orchestra long dedicated to diversity. The 25-member chamber orchestra is made up of past winners of the national Sphinx Competition for emerging African-American and Latino musicians.

"We see this tour as not only a great means of providing performance opportunities for all of our incredible young musicians but also to engage new audiences for classical music and to expose them to music by composers of color," says Aaron Dworkin, 37, an African-American violinist who's the founding president of the 12-year-old nonprofit organization. The program, conducted by Chelsea Tipton II, includes music by Wynton Marsalis played by the Harlem Quartet, which is made up of first-place competition laureates. But progress remains slow.

Until the Chicago Symphony Orchestra engaged Tage Larsen as its fourth/utility trumpet in 2002, no black musician had ever held a full-time position in the CSO. Under the terms of its Diversity Fellowship Program, established in 2002, the CSO engages talented minority musicians to play with the orchestra on a substitute basis, work with regular orchestra members and gain practical playing and auditioning experience. But the program is presently on hold.

For Clayton Penrose-Whitmore, a young black violinist from Evanston whom Sphinx took under its wing three years ago, the assistance provided by the organization has been life-changing.  At 12 he became the youngest player ever to advance to the finals of the Sphinx Competition. Two years later he won first place in the competition's junior division. Now 15, he plays in the Chicago Youth Symphony. "Sphinx has been a great connecting place for me and has given me so many opportunities," he says. "You make a lot of friends and they support you for your whole career." [Aaron Dworkin is profiled at AfriClassical.com]

John von Rhein
Chicago Tribune
Sphinx Organization
Sphinx Chamber Orchestra
Harlem Quartet
Aaron Dworkin