This year BIPOC classical composers' works have been Grammy nominated in several award categories and BIPOC classical musicians perform on a number of Grammy nominated recordings in the Classical Music category, as well as the Americana category.
Read MoreQuinteto Latino's mission is to disrupt racial and economic disparities within the classical music field by championing past, present, and future contributions by Latino composers and musicians. The organization promotes classical music by Latino and Latin American composers through performances, commissions, mentoring, and child and adult education.
Read MoreA musical rebirth and celebration, Phoenix Rising takes a cross-section of Silkroad’s award-winning compositions and arrangements and re-imagines them for today. With this in mind, members of the Silkroad Ensemble and Giddens collaborated on new works that coalesce Giddens unique worldview with the Ensemble’s collective experience during the pandemic.
Phoenix Rising will unveil three new commissions by Silkroad artists Sandeep Das, Maeve Gilchrist, and Kaoru Watanabe. The program also includes new arrangements by Rhiannon Giddens, Colin Jacobsen, Edward Pérez, and Mazz Swift.
Giddens and 13 Silkroad artists will visit venues in Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island, and Virginia.
Read MoreThe Women Composers Festival will highlight performances by dozens of women composers on May 27 at The Church of the Epiphany in Washington and May 28 at AMP by Strathmore in North Bethesda, Md.
The two-day event is hosted by Boulanger Initiative, a nonprofit whose mission is to promote music composed by women through performance, education, research, consulting and commissions. Boulanger Initiative advocates for women and all gender marginalized composers.
Read MoreRepresent Classical’s popular video series, CONVERSATIONS, is now available to listen to on Spotify.
Hosted by Christine S. Escobar, Founder and Editor of Represent Classical, each episode of “CONVERSATIONS” features in depth interviews with industry leaders, notable musicians, movers, shakers, and innovators in classical music and related genres.
Stay tuned for Season 2 beginning in late spring with more insightful and thought-provoking discussions on the change that musicians of color are creating in the music industry.
Read MoreThe Dream Unfinished is one of numerous grassroots, activist orchestras that have emerged in recent years across the country. Their existence is a form of resistance against mainstream classical institutions that have been slow to change and diversify.
The concert, organized by arts administrator and clarinetist, Eun Lee, was a direct response to the killing of Eric Garner at the hands of New York police. Held at Centennial Memorial Temple in New York, the performance featured music by activist composer Leonard Bernstein and William Grant Still, considered the “dean” of African American composers, and speeches by activists including Garner’s daughter, Erica. Proceeds from ticket sales went to the Center for Constitutional Rights, Justice League NYC, and the National Coalition of Law Enforcement Officers for Justice.
Read MoreThe Sphinx Organization has awarded two grants of $100,000 and one grant of $97,500 for 3 projects that meet the Sphinx Venture Fund’s mission to support initiatives designed to solve a challenge or an issue related to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) in classical music.
Read MoreRC Editor Christine S. Escobar speaks with Jerod Impichchaachaaha' Tate in the latest installment of “Conversations” on being true to your identity and defining how the world sees you.
Each episode of Represent Classical’s “Conversations” series features in depth interviews with industry leaders, notable musicians, movers, shakers, and innovators.
Jerod Impichchaachaaha' Tate is a critically acclaimed Oklahoma based composer and pianist dedicated to the development of American Indian classical composition.
Read MoreEar Taxi Festival, one of the largest urban celebrations of new and experimental music, runs September 15 to October 4 in venues across Chicago.
Presented by New Music Chicago, the festival is now in it’s 5th year and celebrates new, contemporary classical, experimental, creative, electronic, and other types of music and “sound-practice” composed by, improvised by, and performed in Chicago by Chicagoans.
Read More“UNKNOWN”, a song cycle honoring the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Arlington National Cemetery on the centennial of its founding will have its world premiere performance Tuesday, October 5, at 7:30 p.m. at the Barns at Wolf Trap in Vienna, VA.
Featured performers for the performance are baritones Michael Mayes and Schyler Vargas, and mezzo-soprano Taylor Raven, accompanied by members of the Inscape Chamber Orchestra, conducted by Robert Wood, the Founder and Artistic Director of UrbanArias.
Read MoreViolinist Jennifer Koh’s new album, “Alone Together”, to be released digitally by Cedille Records on August 27, is based on her online performance series of the same name, originally broadcasted live on Instagram from her home.
The series was created in response to the coronavirus pandemic and the financial hardship it placed on musicians in the arts community.
Read MoreComposer Tyshawn Sorey’s double-album, featuring the chamber orchestra Alarm Will Sound, releases on Cantaloupe Music on August 27.
Recently profiled in the New York Times Magazine, Sorey has been called a denizen of the “in-between zone” by the New Yorker. The two works on the album, commissioned by Alarm Will Sound, tap into a central theme that Sorey calls “the decorating of time.”
Read MoreThe abolitionist musical collective Sound Off: Music for Bail celebrates Black composers and raises money for national bail funds in a live-streamed concert on Groupmuse, an online concert platform.
Read MoreSound Off: Music for Bail presents a recorded concert in collaboration with Bass Players for Black Composers, a performing and commissioning organization that "encourages the expansion of solo repertoire for bass and the normalization of works by Black composers through commissioning diverse artists in all stages of their careers, disseminating works, facilitating performances, and producing educational programs."
Read MoreThe Youth Orchestra Commissioning Initiative is designed to create remote performances of new works by women and composers of color. The project hopes to connect young musicians with new music by composers who will write short chamber pieces for groups of various instrumentation to rehearse and perform virtually from the young musicians’ homes.
Read MoreChicago Sinfonietta has announced their innovative hybrid new season “Stories of The People”. The three concert series will consist of two virtual performances plus a May in person concert.
Guest artists will be Joel Thompson, composer, Ifetayo Ali-Landing, cello, and Victor Wooten, bass. To kick off the season on October 17, the orchestra led by Conductor, Mei-Ann Chen, will perform a virtual program including a world premiere commission by Chicago Sinfonietta Artist in Residence composer Kathryn Bostic.
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