Let’s hear it for program for minority musicians

Chicago Sun-Times
By Esther J. Cepeda, Sun-Times Columnist
Published January 31, 2008
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The best, biggest sound I ever heard was the thunderous applause from a packed Orchestra Hall in June of ’92 at the conclusion of a Chicago Public Schools All-City Orchestra concert, where I was the flute and piccolo soloist. Even then, as a senior who had never picked up an instrument until my second week of freshman year, I knew I was experiencing a hard-won privilege few would know.

My parents were so proud. And rightly so — check out covers of classical music CDs, and you won’t see a lot of brown faces.

“According to recent research, about 3 percent of classical musicians are of color,” Chicago Sinfonietta executive director Jim Hirsch told me about the impetus for Project Inclusion, a new program pushing minority music-makers into the ranks of the country’s elite orchestras. He said the Sinfonietta… is the most diverse orchestra in America, 250 percent more diverse than No. 2 on that list.

Of course, no one should care who’s plucking out Strauss’ “Pizzicato Polka” or manning the timpani on Tchaikovsky’s “Romeo and Juliet Overture,” but I’m beyond psyched that there’s a way to open those opportunities to young people who, like me, had talent, passion but no resources to ever get to a major American stage for real.

And how will my Wagner, Copeland or Dvorak benefit? “The way we come at things culturally and socially is important,” Hirsch said. “It’s musically important as well. Diversity helps the sound of the orchestra.”

Bravo!