Well....when a new professional chorus sends out its first email and uses the phrase "a commitment to artistic innovation," you naturally look at the repertory that they have decided to perform.
And when you find that they're performing music by eight white men, six of them dead and the two living ones 60 and older, you wonder what "innovative" means to them. The composers are from six different countries (good!) and the particular works do look interesting in and of themselves. But still: it's as though the group missed much of the discussion about innovation and diversity in the music that gets performed.
There's time for this to change, though: their first concert will be next February. Best of luck, of course, and I look forward to hearing more about what "artistic innovation" means to the music director.
3 comments:
It takes generations for musical institutions to make the investment (of time and energy) to explore repertoire that is not “proven.” That’s why dead composers are the ones that artistic directors choose more often than living ones. And there’s a hierarchy to dead composers too, and that skews white and male, unless there is a thematic reason to make other choices.
Bay Area choruses are doing pretty well with programming a diverse repertory, which is why it caught my eye that this brand new chorus isn't even trying.
What's said above is true, but it's a cautious approach, not compatible with "a commitment to artistic innovation." There's plenty of music available that's been proven in performance by composers who are not in that particular category.
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