Understanding Diversity

From conversations on social media to think-pieces on popular blogs to discussions at international industry conventions, recent years have brought a heightened awareness of diversity to the classical music community. First of all, what do we mean when we say diversity?

To us, striving for greater diversity in classical music means striving to include, support, and celebrate more of the vastly varied fabric of humanity in the classical music community. Diversity encompasses every imaginable type of human difference, including but not limited to race, ethnicity, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, age, social class, physical ability or attributes, religious or ethical values system, national origin, and political beliefs.

Conversations on diversity can be divisive, circular, and unsatisfying, raising more questions than they answer.

  • “What is the state of diversity in classical music?”
  • “Why is it the way it is?”
  • “What can we do about it?”
  • Even: “Why does it matter?”

Unfortunately for our industry, no large scale demographic study or long term longitudinal qualitative studies have been done, and this is one of the main reasons that our conversations on the topic can feel circular and dissatisfying. We’ve done a deep dive in order to understand what the state of diversity in classical music is today, and how best we can help.

What is the State of Diversity in Classical Music?

  • White orchestra musicians make up 86% of orchestra musicians,1 but only 72.3% of the US population is white.2
  • Black orchestra musicians make up 1.8% of orchestra musicians, and 12.7% of the US population is black.3
  • Asians make up 9.1% of orchestra musicians, and 5.6% of the US population is Asian.
  • Hispanic/Latino populations make up 2.5% of orchestra musicians, and are poorly accounted for in US population data, making a comparison impossible. Hispanic/Latino populations are also the fastest growing demographic group in the US.
  • The racial and ethnic makeup of orchestra conductors is gradually diversifying, with non-white conductors increasing from 15.7% in 2006 to 21% in 2016, but white orchestra conductors remain the majority at 79%.
  • The gender breakdown of orchestra musicians is 47:53 female to male, a profound improvement from the number of female musicians in orchestras in 1978, only 38%.
  • Orchestra music directors, however, are less than 10% female, pointing to vertical segregation, or as it’s known colloquially, the Glass Ceiling. Orchestra conducting roles other than music director are 20.5% female. More troubling perhaps is that the ratios of female to male conductors and music directors have both remained static since 2006, at 1:10 and 1:4 respectively.
  • We examined the racial breakdown of ten of the most prestigious composition programs in the U.S. and we found that out of 65 total faculty members, 75% were men and 25% were women. To break that down further, 66% were white men, 22% were white women, 9% were men of color and 3% were women of color.

Why does it matter?

Classical music may be a niche within the greater cultural landscape, but as interest in this type of music-making is shrinking, we have to ask ourselves hard questions.

In 2018, the U.S. Census Bureau projected that by the year 2045, the white population will comprise only 49.7% of the overall population, in contrast with the 72.3% the white population represented in 2017. If the people most interested in this artform are largely white, we may not have much of an audience in 2045, a sobering thought for those of us who love this artform and want it to flourish.

Consider this: The longevity of the field will likely one day depend upon its inclusivity and its relevance to diverse communities.

What drives underrepresentation?

It’s “Pay-to-Play.”

It starts with education. Drop thousands of dollars on first an instrument, then on years of private lessons, youth ensembles, summer intensive programs, and pre-professional development and networking experiences (to which one normally must travel). Access to a quality public school music program isn’t guaranteed, and many public school instrumental ensembles even require students in honor ensembles to take private lessons, barring access to any who can’t afford it. Then the cherry on top? Multiple academic degrees to the tune of certainly tens if not hundreds of thousands of dollars or more. Scholarships are rare and don’t cover the full gamut of expenses.

Many experience discrimination.

A survey of 600 professional musicians in the U.K. found that 47% of all respondents had experienced discrimination in the workplace, including sexual harassment and inappropriate behavior. 71% of those respondents who did experience discrimination were women.4 General educational studies suggest that discrimination in schooling is woven into the very fabric of school practices and policies,5 pointing again to the importance of diversity support throughout education.

Women and people of color have been systematically erased from music history, and diverse children who don’t see themselves represented in the field may be less likely to continue with their classical music education.

Countless composers of color and women composers have contributed to the classical music tradition, including Chevalier de Saint-Georges, Margaret Bonds, Arturo Marquez, Maria Szymanowska, and too many others to name. The Western classical focus of music curricula creates a dichotomy between Western classical music and other musical traditions, establishing Western classical music as the only music worthy of study, an attitude that only serves to alienate musical children whose base of musical knowledge may be rooted in other musical traditions. The number of diverse historical composers from other traditions that could be represented with this one curricular shift is astronomical.

General educational studies have shown that minority students experience greater educational success (test scores, attendance, suspension rates, drop out rates) by simply having a single teacher of their same-race, suggesting that representation is key to success.6 The white majority of the music-teaching workforce may well wonder, “Then what can we do to help?” Well, there is hope. Studies in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) show that one on one mentorship regardless of race has been positively correlated with retention, progress toward graduate studies and a career, higher grade point averages, and increased confidence and self-efficacy.7 The roughly 86% of music teachers who are white8 may actually have the power through mentorship to inspire minority students to continue with their studies in music.

How can we make change in our industry?

No one person or institution has the power to fix our diversity problem, but every single one of us can be part of the solution, and education is the key. Education is not only the earliest site of exclusion, but also one of the most impactful sites of intervention. That’s why we at Carl Fischer are turning our attention to working with educators.

WE WANT TO SEE YOU SHINE

We want to be part of the wave that makes change in the world. This change will not happen overnight, but we believe that if every organization and every individual contributes, we can and will drive progress. Let’s work together!

$1000 WORTH OF REPERTOIRE AND METHODS

Here at Carl Fischer Music, we are inspired by the power that educators have to lift up their students. That’s why we’re excited to announce that we will award ten diversity grants of $1000 of repertoire and methods to ten U.S. school music programs with concrete plans to support the underrepresented young musicians in their communities. How could $1000 of repertoire and methods free up funds in your budget for diversity measures?

It could be helping out with instrument rental or private lessons, providing students with method books, kicking off a peer to peer tutoring program, or setting up a mentorship program to promote music career awareness at your school—you tell us! Let’s start this journey together.

Apply now

CALL FOR ORCHESTRA AND BAND SUBMISSIONS

We want to hear your works for educational orchestra and band. We’re all about everything educational repertoire, so show us what you got!

We’re excited to announce that our top tips for writing for educational orchestra and band will go public in early 2020. Completely FREE and open to the public online, it will give composers the nitty-gritty info they need to navigate writing for these educational ensembles.

For composers, their first experiences with composition may not come until middle or high school age. With an eye towards diversifying the makeup of composers in the field, we’re excited to be on the lookout for an impactful program dedicated to supporting diverse young composers, and we welcome suggestions from the community.

Submit your composition

1 James Doeser, Jesse Rosen, Karen Yair, Tse Wei Kok, David Bojanowski, and Celeste Wroblewski. “Racial/Ethnic and Gender Diversity in the Orchestra Field.” IssueLab. League of American Orchestras, September 1, 2016. http://www.ppv.issuelab.org/resources/25840/25840.pdf

2 U.S. Census Bureau.

3 All further demographic data provided by Doeser, “Racial/Ethnic and Gender Diversity in the Orchestra Field” and the U.S. Census Bureau unless otherwise marked.

4 Deborah Annetts and Francesca Treadaway. “Dignity at work: tackling harassment and discrimination in the music sector and beyond.” Incorporated Society of Musicians, April 2018. https://www.ism.org/images/images/ISM_Dignity-at-work-April-2018.pdf

5 Sonia Nieto. Affirming Diversity (Pearson Education, Inc., 2004), 35-91.

6 See, for example, Thomas Dee, “Teachers, Race, and Student Achievement in a Randomized Experiment,” Review of Economics and Statistics, 2004; Thomas Dee, “A Teacher Like Me: Does Race, Ethnicity, or Gender Matter?” American Economic Review, 2005; Anna Egalite, Brian Kisida, and Marcus Winters, “Representation in the Classroom: The Effect of Own-Race Teachers on Student Achievement,” Economics of Education Review, 2015; Stephen Holt and Seth Gershenson, “The Impact of Teacher Demographic Representation on Student Attendance and Suspensions,” IZA discussion paper 9554, 2015; and Constance Lindsay and Cassandra Hart, “Exposure to Same-Race Teachers and Student Disciplinary Outcomes for Black Students in North Carolina,” Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, 2017.

7 Lisa Tsui. “Effective Strategies to Increase Diversity in STEM Fields: A Review of the Research Literature,” The Journal of Negro Education 76, no. 2 (2007): 558-559, https://www.jstor.org/stable/40037228

8 Kenneth Elpus.”Music Teacher Licensure Candidates in the United States: A Demographic Profile and Analysis of Licensure Examination Scores,” Journal of Research in Music Education 63, no. 3 (2015).

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