As part of its ongoing commitment to diversity and inclusion in the orchestral field, the League of American Orchestras launched several working groups last year, with participants from a broad range of classical music stakeholders, to create action plans to tackle various dimensions of diversifying American orchestras. These groups and their strategic priorities grew out of a convening the League organized in December 2015 in partnership with The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. A larger group then gathered at the League’s 2016 Conference, which centered on diversity and inclusion. Two of the groups, one devoted to developing a national mentoring and audition training initiative for musicians of color, the other a national diversity audition fund for musicians of color, have already found institutional homes, initial funding, and considerable traction. The other groups—on board and staff diversity; the music education pipeline; and parent and family resources—are in various stages of activity and progress. The League will present the outcomes of the diversity task forces at the 2017 National Conference in Detroit.
