
Roderick Cox, Tania León, Thomas Wilkins, Anthony McGill
“With their major institutions founded on white European models and obstinately focused on the distant past, classical music and opera have been even slower than American society at large to confront racial inequity,” write Zachary Woolfe and Joshua Barone in Thursday’s (7/16) New York Times. “The protests against police brutality and racial exclusion that have engulfed the country since the end of May have encouraged individuals and organizations toward new awareness of long-held biases, and provided new motivation to change. Nine Black performers spoke with The New York Times about steps that could be taken to begin transforming a white-dominated field.” The artists are: composer Terence Blanchard, tenor Lawrence Brownlee, conductor Roderick Cox, bassoonist Monica Ellis, composer Tania León, composer Jessie Montgomery, clarinetist player Anthony McGill, soprano Latonia Moore, and conductor Thomas Wilkins. Said McGill, “The new way is actually getting on the ground and teaching, getting on the ground and having tough conversations about the state of our field and who we’re trying to reach. Being there to help people understand that the orchestra is there for them.”