“Toks Dada … [has] just been appointed as head of classical music at London’s Southbank Centre, one of the top jobs in classical music in the UK,” writes Ivan Hewett in Thursday’s (12/17) Daily Telegraph (U.K.). The pandemic “crisis has overshadowed two things about Dada that ought to make his appointment headline news in the arts world. Not quite 31 years old, he’s the youngest person to occupy such a senior position in classical music in the UK, and he’s also black…. ‘Actually, the fact of me being black is irrelevant, because whoever is in this role, whether they are white or mixed heritage or whatever, would have to take diversity seriously,’ he says.” A trained violist, Dada previously headed “Town Hall in Birmingham’s … classical music program.… Dada thinks the digital revolution brought on by the pandemic … is here to stay…. ‘We’ve been able to do a lot of learning and speculating and dreaming during these strange times, and it’s important we don’t forget all that as we move forward.’ ” Southbank Centre is the largest arts center in the UK; resident orchestras are the London Philharmonic Orchestra, Philharmonia Orchestra, London Sinfonietta, and Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment.
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