Friday, May 10, 2013

Guardian.co.uk: 'Q&A: Aaron P Dworkin, Founder and President, The Sphinx Organization, US'

Aaron P. Dworkin, photographed here by Glenn Triest,
is featured at AfriClassical.com


Friday 10 May 2013
 


What inspired you to begin Sphinx?

Growing up as a bi-racial violinist, I have invariably found myself in all musical circumstances (ranging from a youth orchestra to a member of the audience), to be the only one, or one of less-than-a-handful of those who resembled me. Early on, I began to question the reasons for a such a stark under-representation of people of colour in the field. As a student at the University of Michigan, I decided to take action and launched the effort to provide an avenue through which the top young string musicians of colour would have access to professional development and performance opportunities. Thus, the Sphinx Competition for young Black and Latino String Players was born, to later develop into a comprehensive set of programmes under the Sphinx Organization umbrella.


What were the initial challenges?

One of the key challenges, as with any new effort, was securing the resources necessary to make the dream a reality. Fortunately, the mission was so singular and the work so tremendously needed that I was able to, through persistence, convince key funders to come on board for the inaugural year.

Comment by email:
As always, thanks so much Bill!  Hope all is well with you...  
Aaron  [Aaron P. Dworkin]

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