Kyle MacMillan of the Chicago Sun-Times spoke with Chicago Sinfonietta Principal Violist Marlea Simpson for a feature on the future of classical music.
“According one report, the share of African American and Latino musicians in American orchestras stood at just 2.5 percent in 2014.
Success for Marlea Simpson will be when the entire field functions like the Chicago Sinfonietta, where the African American musician has served as principal violist since 2014. The ensemble is an unusual outlier in the orchestral realm, because at least one third of its musicians, staff and board are people of color.
“I get to experience classical music in the way I feel it should be experienced,” she said.”
