League of American Orchestras Will Launch Inclusive Stages Program to Increase Racial Diversity

The League of American Orchestras announced on March 8 that it will launch Inclusive Stages, a new program aimed at increasing racial diversity among musicians in American orchestras, in Spring 2023. The program’s pilot year will be supported by San Francisco-based Sakana Foundation, with additional funders to be announced. “Inclusive Stages will enable us to do critical work supporting orchestras in making our stages more diverse, helping us advance the collective action necessary to strengthen our field,” said League of American Orchestras President and CEO Simon Woods. “I’m so grateful to the League’s donors and especially to Sakana Foundation trustee Sakurako Fisher for helping us build a sustainable long-term future for the orchestral art form.” The program’s pilot year will focus on four main goals: to collect new orchestra field demographic and audition policy data; to build a coalition of musicians, music directors, executive directors and other orchestra staff, union representatives, and additional stakeholders to help advance change; to add capacity within the League with the addition of a new full-time Manager of Inclusion and Learning; and to create an outline roadmap for the program’s future.

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