Posted on October 17, 2013

Aaron Dworkin’s Address on Inclusion in American Orchestras

YouTube, October 8, 2013

[Editor’s Note: A reader sent us the following video with this message:

In the orchestra business, in which I am a musician, our institutions bend over backwards to try to hire black people, so as to make our organizations look more “diverse”. All auditions are played behind a screen, ensuring racial and gender neutrality. Nonetheless, there are practically no black people in orchestras because, simply put, hardly any blacks play classical music or apply to the profoundly competitive anonymous auditions. So, like the lottery, if you don’t play, you can’t win.

I submit to you a major player in the arts administration world, the leader of a black and Hispanic music program, speaking to a national congress of orchestral administrators. What he said and seemed to demand, was so shocking that I don’t know where to begin. Maybe you know how to address this.

According to the YouTube posting, the video is “a pre-recorded taping of Sphinx Founder’s address delivered at Carnegie Hall on 10-8-2013.”]