Sphinx Virtuosi (Nan Melville)
Tuesday 10.08.13
By RICH COPLEY
Lexington Herald-Leader
LEXINGTON, Ky. - Like many ensembles, the Sphinx Virtuosi would
like to change the sounds of classical music. But the group also wants
to change the genre's complexion.
"Nationally, less than 4
percent of American orchestras - of which we have approximately 1,200 -
are black and Latino combined," says Afa Sadykhly Dworkin, executive and
artistic director of the Sphinx Organization, which oversees the Sphinx
Virtuosi and numerous other endeavors. "That number has grown since the
inception of Sphinx, and in fact, the number of African-Americans in
major U.S. orchestras has doubled.
"So there has been some
amount of progress, but the progress has been marginal as compared to
the time line and representation of population of major minority groups
in the field."
Sphinx has helped to change things and aims to continue
change by creating opportunities for black and Latino musicians to
perform and grow.
The group was founded in 1997 by Afa's
husband, Aaron Dworkin, a violinist who said he was always the only
minority musician, or one of only a handful, in classes and performances
as he pursued the violin.
"Anytime I'd go to an orchestra
concert, I'd look on stage, I'd look around me in the audience, and
wonder, 'Why is there no one who looks like me?" Aaron Dworkin says in a
video on Sphinxmusic.org.
Afa Dworkin says there are
historic and cultural reasons for the lack of diversity in classical
music performance and academia.
"Historically, certainly
African-Americans were not included in the field, and the same goes for
Latinos, so it's not part of the conventional culture, and historically
our orchestras have been predominantly white," she says. "So now, to
overcome that - and many of the young people the we touch through our
educational and grass-roots programs, as well as a lot of their
families, don't feel included in this field and don't feel it's an
integral part of their culture - so we're working to overcome a much
more complex set of circumstances."
(Dworkin says she is
frequently asked why Sphinx does not work with Asian musicians. She says
Asians are actually over-represented in classical music performance and
academia, relative to their population as a whole.)
The
centerpiece of Sphinx is the annual Sphinx competition in Detroit, a
contest for black and Latino string musicians, in a junior division for
ages 18 and younger and a senior division for ages 18 to 26.
The Sphinx Virtuosi is a conductorless 18-member ensemble made up of
competition veterans and winners, many of whom enjoy careers with
orchestras or as soloists and chamber musicians. The group's annual tour
always includes a stop at New York's Carnegie Hall and regular dates in
Chicago and Miami, and the music is as diverse as the musicians on
stage.
The group's program, titled "Dialogue Between Two
Eras," features music by baroque composers and 20th-century composers
who were influenced by them. That includes Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, who
was dubbed "the African Mahler" in some circles, and Argentine star
Astor Piazolla, who was heavily influenced by Johann Sebastian Bach,
whose music also is on the concert.
[Samuel Coleridge-Taylor (1875-1912) is profiled at AfriClassical.com,
which features a comprehensive Works List and a Bibliography by Prof.
Dominique-René de Lerma, www.CasaMusicaledeLerma.com.
We
are collaborating with the Samuel Coleridge-Taylor Foundation of the
U.K., www.SCTF.org.uk]
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