News and music to start your week!
Tune into NPR’s Morning Edition for a conversation with Amanda Jones, pictured above, who just became the first African American woman to earn an Emmy nomination for original television score. She is a singer and songwriter as well as a score composer. Read on to find out where you can hear her works, and how she advocates as co-founder of the Composers Diversity Collective.
Michigan Public Radio (MPR) fired their only Black classical music host, Garrett McQueen, after he replaced scheduled programming (of works by dead, white, men) with more inclusive programming. Officials at the radio station said that their problem was not the change in playlists, rather that the changes did not follow a set process. Read more at MPRNews.org.
More is being said in the follow-up to Anthony Tommasini’s call to end blind auditions. One of the best responses out there is by Maia Jasper White on NewMusicBox. She shares her own experience performing in blind auditions, and suggests ways we can move forward with intentional inclusion and diversity in mind – while also recognizing that we need to think beyond perfect performances in the value of an artist.
New Music USA also just published a round-up of resources, festivals, and opportunities that they are funding (WOW!), with the aim of amplifying the voices of underrepresented gender identities. This list will be a great inspiration to everyone! Read on here.
“Feminine Fusion” is a Radio program hosted by Diane Jones of WCNY. It highlights the influence of women in classical music; women throughout history and into the present day who create, perform, and inspire. The syndicated broadcast is widely available in the U.S.
Marie Jaëll was composer of the week on the BBC. I am now getting “This content is not available in your location” [USA] although I was able to hear it a few days ago….
ICYMI, the Susan B. Anthony House and Museum in Rochester, NY, hosted a chamber concert in honor of the 19th Amendment (outdoors) with music including Amy Beach’s String Quartet, a wind trio by Valerie Coleman, and a work for solo violin by Molly Joyce. Listen on Facebook!
The BBC Proms season has officially wrapped up for 2020. Read on about the “odd” last night from Golda Schultz, the soprano who was featured in the final concert at The Guardian, where she also talks about diversity in classical music. Read, too, from reviewer Flora Wilson about how the Last Night of the Proms missed an opportunity to react to the current world events – a tradition it rarely shied away from in the past.
OK! Be sure to let us know what we missed! And stay safe! [email protected]