Kevin Scott
Earlier today AfriClassical posted:
Kevin Scott commented:
Last week I posted on my Facebook page one of my strongest rants of how
black classical composers and conductors face the worst discrimination
in classical music. It is bad enough that we receive this treatment from
white musicians, many of whom simply don't know the existence of black
composers and conductors, or choose not to acknowledge us, but when you
deal with a sizable portion of the black community you are viewed as a
pariah because you have chosen not to conform to your heritage in music
(jazz, R&B, gospel or rap).
Such is the case where I also
mentioned that no fewer than three black conductors - the Americans
Kazem Abdullah and Brandon Keith Brown, and the German Kevin John Edusei
- have lucrative conducting careers in Germany, with Abdullah serving
the music director in Aachen and Edusei the music director of the Munich
Symphony Orchestra. Here in this country, you have Andre Raphel leading
the Wheeling Symphony in West Virginia and Michael Morgan conducting
California's Oakland Symphony, where he's been the music director since
1990, the longest position any black conductor has held with any
symphony orchestra in this nation.
Yet this simply is not enough.
There are far too many black male conductors out there, and when you do
find them most likely they're either in charge of a collegiate
orchestra or wind ensemble, or even a community-based ensemble such as
myself. The chances of a black conductor being viewed as a possible
candidate for a major American orchestra seems slim these days, and if
one is invited to perform with a major orchestra, nine times out of ten
we're asked to participate either in a Black History Month or Martin
Luther King, Jr. concert. This also applies to black composers, meaning
that the only chance you might get to hear their music is at one of
these concerts and not on a subscription program. Recently, Kirk Smith
elicited high praise for his performance with the Houston Symphony on a
Black History Month concert, but at the same time he should be welcomed
with open arms to lead the orchestra on a subscription concert and not
the one-shot only gig.
Because of these issues and more, this
forces many conductors or color to either start their own orchestra, or
to seek better opportunities by performing on the European continent,
where they are treated with the same respect and equality as white
American conductors. Even sadder is the scarcity of black women
conductors, who do not get treated with the same respect or courtesy as
do many of their white colleagues.
It should be noted that three
days after The Dream Unfinished concert, Joseph Jones is conducting a
concert with Orchestra Amadeus (New York) dealing with the aftermath of
the tragedy in Orlando, performing Beethoven's ninth symphony alongside
music of Samuel Barber, Aaron Copland and John Corigliano. This is not
the first time Jones, a young black composer-conductor who studied at
Peabody in Baltimore, has done this. Since 2010 he has led concerts with
his orchestra, whose mission statement is "Social Justice through
Classical Music", raising funds for victims of tragedy in Haiti, Nepal
and the Boston Marathon, while showcasing new talent in the New York
area. He has also been a controversial figure because of his stance on
these issues and much more, and solely publicizes his concerts using
Facebook and Twitter to get the word out, as well as recruiting
musicians to join Orchestra Amadeus. He has yet to be invited to
guest-conduct more established orchestras.
And this goes for John
as well. Even though he has several major American orchestras, they
have been special one-off concerts where he is not able to perform the
repertoire that has established his name, basically forgotten and
unknown American composers from the first half of the last century, and
has yet to be invited to perform on subscription concerts with major,
internationally-recognized orchestras. This is an oversight that must be
addressed with continued and tenacious concern.
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