Shifting Cultural Dynamics with Music

By: LaToya Cross

*As a collaborator of New Music USA’s Amplifying Voices program, the DSO will present works by the following composers, conductors, and soloists: Michael Abels, Tania León, Carlos Simon, and Brian Raphael Nabors. Renowned guest conductors include Han-Na Chang, JoAnn Falletta, Jonathon Heyward, Enrique Mazzola, Matthias Pintscher, and Leonard Slatkin; with soloists including Augustin Hadelich, Stephen Hough, Leila Josefowicz, Anthony McGill, Garrick Ohlsson, Yeol Eum Son, and Davóne Tines, Billy Childs, Du Yun, James Lee III, Jessie Montgomery, Arlene Sierra, and Shelley Washington. 

The DSO, as an organization and cultural institution, has long been committed to creating a community that identifies, understands, and invites many voices to contribute to its artistic output.  

In addition to uplifting works by women and people of color throughout its programming, the DSO’s annual Classical Roots Concert and Celebration is a legacy in honoring musicians and composers of color who have contributed and made impact in the classical genre.   

This year’s celebration, to be held on March 1 and March 2 in Orchestra Hall, marks the 46th annual Classical Roots Concert and will feature a thought-provoking and self-examining work by composer and multi-instrumentalist Shelley Washington. Washington’s piece, Both, appears on the program as a DSO and New Music USA Amplifying Voices co-commission.  

Expressed across four movements: "Travel," "Teeny Tiny Little Things," "Where to Next?," and "11:30 p.m. to 4:30 a.m.," Both is gentle and intricate; rhythmic and textured. It offers space for both the composer and the listener to think, reflect, and consider how they choose to show up in the world.  

“As someone who often lives between both coasts, is attracted to both men and women, is a contributor to both classical music and D.I.Y. post-rock, is both Black and white, experiences both extreme mental highs and lows, both a composer and performer; student and teacher….this piece is meant to reflect the fact that you and I both are not either/or, and that so many things, people, places are not the binary they’ve been billed to us as, but a spectrum from point to point,”  Washington expressed.  

The piece does not meddle in conflict, but rather embraces the complexities of human experience. Washington notes it as an exercise in empathy and introspection on how we view the labels we give ourselves and others.  

Diversifying an Industry

As the classical music industry works to shift its cultural paradigm and become more inclusive, from the concert hall to the boardroom, New Music USA’s Amplifying Voices Program has a goal to diversify classical repertoire and foster collaborations of racial and gender equity in orchestral music. 

The initiative is supported by the Sphinx Venture Fund and is making strides toward change by co-commissioning orchestras–the DSO among its collaborators– to increase the support and promotion of underrepresented composers and create space for their contributions to artistic-planning at major national orchestras and transform the classical canon for future generations. 

“It’s not an easy path for anyone studying classical music, but it’s particularly not an easy path for any children [or people] of color, where they may not be precedent. The full goal is to really have our music, concert halls, stages, and corner offices be representative of the population,” says Afa Dworkin, Sphinx Organization President and Artistic Director. “If we see top five orchestras and they say, 'let's get together' and for three years we're doing it, the rest of the field is going to follow.” 

The DSO’s collaboration with New Music USA aligns with the work the organization does to achieve collective positive impact that extends to various communities and advances opportunities for voices— the emerging and underrepresented—to be heard and seen.  

This mission continues with DSO programming and co-commissions featuring works by women and people of color, including compositions by Pulitzer Prize-winner Tania León and Brian Raphael Nabors, who premiered new pieces during the 2022-2023 season.

Brian Raphael Nabors, Assistant Professor of Composition at Louisiana State University, was a 2019 composer fellow in the American Composer’s Orchestra EarShot program with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra. His piece, Rise, was selected for the DSO EarShot Readings and was rehearsed and performed under the direction of conductor André Raphel.  

Last April, his work, Upon Daybreak, was presented in Orchestra Hall under the baton of JoAnn Falletta. Inspired by the late Dr. Maya Angelou’s 1995 poem, A Brave and Startling Truth, where lines speak to arriving at a day of “peacemaking” and becoming one human family, the composition plays as an “everlasting serenade” and “ode of triumph” to a world absent of hatred and malice. The action-calling line: ‘When we come to it’ aligns with Nabors’ foundational theme of freedom and moving forward.

Upon Daybreak is the third installment of Nabors’ symphonic triptych, composed to explore ideas that accentuate the human experience. Preceding the piece was Pulse (2019), an “episodic rhapsody” that centered on the natural rhythms that unify the universe; and Onward (2019), a musical journey that depicts moments of discovery, innovation, and change that pushes us and our world into the future.  

Each work expresses a response to the question: “If true freedom, with no malice but acceptance on all fronts, had a sound, what would it be?” Nabors envisions a “picturesque utopia with sound that engulfs the listener with abundant joy.”   

He adds, “I’ve always looked at my own work as a tool or vessel to merge many different worlds together so that we can rid ourselves of differences that aren’t even there and start conversations to redefine what it means to be human and to be more united.”  

In addition to the DSO premiere of Upon Daybreak, Chevalier de Saint-Georges Violin Concerto No.2, Kodály's Dances of Galánta, and Stravinsky's Concerto for Violin & Orchestra were also featured on the April program. Upon Daybreak is currently available on DSO Replay.

Tania León’s Indigena–a chamber orchestra work that evokes the Carnival festival–was part of the DSO’s 2020 digital season. Her recent work, Pasajes, made its DSO premiere on December 9-11, under the direction of guest conductor Jonathon Heyward–newly appointed Music Director Designate of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra.  

With Pasajes ("Passages"), the intuitive composer paints scenes of her Cuban ancestry with Latin American rhythms and pulsating sounds that capture Caribbean dance culture. Conscious not to give too much away–to give space for the audience to listen and experience the music in their own way–León describes the 12-minute piece as a delivery of poetry in sound.

“Each passage in the piece is a fresh idea. It’s like going to a museum and looking at a canvas that you have seen before,” she says. “This is a new way of painting; like Picasso or Monet, but with a new palette.”

Dvorak’s Eighth Symphony and Mendelssohn’s Piano Concerto No. 1 Op. 25 featuring Yeol Eum Son as soloist, also appeared on the classical program.

The volume of discussion around creating equitable opportunities for people of color and women in classical music is heightened. With works being produced that address the ills and joys of society, as well as crafting unique melodies to merge different worlds and narratives, we can see the impact voices from varying backgrounds, ethnicities, and experiences bring to the worldwide stage.  

“Representation must become the norm, not an occasion of note,” Dworkin emphasizes. “It gives people, especially young people, a sense of determination, purpose, and belonging. The minute they operate in an environment where everyone else resembles their background, and where role models are all people who represent their background, I think belonging builds itself. And it’s exciting to see.”  

Using music as a catalyst for bringing people together and exploring perspectives is a shared value among the DSO, Sphinx Organization, and New Music USA’s Amplifying Voices program. It is a commitment to the value of progress and keeping music vibrant and alive.