“The Richard Tucker Music Foundation, which grants prestigious awards to young singers, removed David N. Tucker from its board of directors on Monday evening,” writes Sarah Bahr in Monday’s (7/20) New York Times. “Mr. Tucker, a son of the distinguished tenor for whom the foundation is named, was removed after an uproar over racially charged comments that he made on a Black singer’s Facebook page. ‘The Richard Tucker Music Foundation condemns the hurtful and offensive comments made by one of our board members, David Tucker,’ Jeffrey Manocherian, the foundation’s chairman, and Barry Tucker, its president and another of Richard Tucker’s sons, said in a statement. On Saturday, Julia Bullock, a Black soprano, shared a Washington Post story on her Facebook page that quoted protesters in Portland, Ore…. In response, Mr. Tucker commented, ‘Good. Get rid of these thugs and I don’t care where you send them. They are a Pox on our society.’ … When Russell Thomas, a Black tenor, replied in a comment that the Tucker Foundation had given its top prize … to only one Black artist [tenor Lawrence Brownlee] since it was first granted in 1978, Mr. Tucker wrote that ‘pulling the race card is another convenient excuse to modify excellent standards of vocal artistry.’ ”
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