Quinton Morris, founder and executive director of Key to Change, with student Madison Cole. Key to Change students perform with the Seattle Symphony on October 24. Photo by Kevin Clark/The Seattle Times.
In Thursday’s (10/19) Seattle Times, Christy Karras writes, “Avi Spillers … a 14-year-old freshman at Mount Rainier High School … is one of three teen violinists who will play concerto solos with the Seattle Symphony in Renton on Oct. 24. Spillers and fellow soloists … are students at Key to Change, a nonprofit that teaches violin and viola to underserved students in South King County. Key to Change students have played in recitals before Seattle Symphony concerts, but not with the orchestra itself. Quinton Morris [is] Key to Change’s founder and executive director and a professor of violin at Seattle University … Founded in 2017, the nonprofit Key to Change teaches about 500 students in grades 6-12 in its Renton studio and in schools and outreach programs…. Key to Change is trying to address: a lack of opportunities for traditionally marginalized people, especially underrepresented people of color, in classical music. A recent report from the nonprofit League of American Orchestras showed that Black people, for example, make up 12.6% of the U.S. population but only 2.4% of professional orchestral musicians…. Morris said, ‘In music education, [racism’s] effect is toxic, and it burns everyone in sight unless you tackle it head on with a fire hose of equity, inclusivity, justice and compassion.’ ”
