By: Kerry Ding

The percentile of Asian and Latino musicians is rising to the representation they should have relative to the population of Asians and Latinos in the U.S. However, Black musicians are still slow to be hired.

American professional orchestras have recently been under scrutiny for having fewer Black musicians than the percentage of Black people in America. However, Latinos and Asians have had huge growths in percentage in the orchestras. Now, around 21% of orchestral musicians are people of color, according to the League of American Orchestras. This is a huge growth from the original 14% in 2013. Sadly, the percentage of Black musicians only increased by 0.6% from 1.8% to 2.4%

However, not everything is bad. Representation for women has increased as the number of women conducting doubled. These changes do not change the fact that people of color are still generally misrepresented. A report at the League of American Orchestras conference room will most likely bring up the subject again, though. The president of the League, Simon Woods, even said, “I have never felt so much urgency for change and seen so much sincere work for change, but there’s no denying that we, as a field, have to believe it will go faster.”

Even though the Orchestras have recognized these problems for decades now, progress is still slow. This is because when someone becomes part of a big orchestra, they usually stay for life. This means that finding empty spots in an orchestra is very rare. So, the change is forced to be slow.

There are huge disagreements on how to deal with bias and prejudice based on gender or race in the profession. Some people recommend the blind audition test. This test makes musicians perform behind a screen. This means that judges must judge completely on skill and not race or gender.

Also, the principal oboist at the Nashville Symphony even went as far as to say, “We must reflect American culture. And American culture is nothing without Black musicians being at the center.”

The report from the League of American Orchestras showed progress, with the percentage of Asians on average increasing from 9% to 11%. Although Latino musicians doubled in percentage from 2.5% to 4.8%, they remain misrepresented compared to the population percentage. This is because they are about 19% of the U.S. population.

Ever since 2020 when this conversation about social injustice increased, U.S Orchestras started playing more songs by minorities and women. This way, the orchestras can learn new songs besides the traditional songs composed by white, male, composers.

Even the creator of the Sphinx Organization is saying that the report made it easy to see that U.S orchestras were needing reform in the diversity aspect.

“There’s really not a shortage of talent,” she said. “There are ranks and ranks of Black and Hispanic musicians who certainly are ready to perform as part of major American orchestras. And we’re not engaging nearly enough of them yet.”

Sources:

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/10/arts/music/female-conductors.html

https://americanorchestras.org/racial-ethnic-and-gender-diversity-in-the-orchestra-field-in-2023/

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/06/21/arts/music/american-orchestras-women-minorities.html